


Reality Undefined: The Arrival

by PurpleZelos



Series: Reality Undefined [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dungeons & Dragons, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Dimension Travel, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, F/M, Fantasy, Gods, High Fantasy, Magic, Magic-Users, Prologue, Romance, Series, Short, Short & Sweet, Teen Romance, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23437630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleZelos/pseuds/PurpleZelos
Summary: Life is good for Sebastian Thomas Maes. His wealthy family owns the small farming town of Ghent and he has all the books he could want to read and the knowledge he craves at his fingertips. However, when he and his sisters discover a strange book from a different land, they discover that the reality they know isn't the only one of its kind
Series: Reality Undefined [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686217
Kudos: 1





	1. Belgium; March 17th, 1937

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life is good for Sebastian Thomas Maes. His wealthy family owns the small farming town of Ghent and he has all the books he could want to read and the knowledge he craves at his fingertips. However, when he and his sisters discover a strange book from a different land, they discover that the reality they know isn't the only one of its kind

Slowly opening his eyes as bright daylight shines directly into his face through a small window across from him, a young boy begrudgingly rolls out of the comfort of his bed and into the cool spring morning. Carefully stepping through various books and clothes littering the hard wooden floor, he moved towards the bathroom to freshen himself before dressing himself in long black pants, a white button-up shirt, and a large brown overcoat. Passing a hand through his light blonde hair, thankful that although he would admit he wasn’t the best looking individual, his parents gave him some nice looks. Even if he was on the shorter side, his soft hazel eyes, blonde hair, and pale skin was decent enough. He wasn’t vain by any means, but he felt sometimes one should appreciate one’s self. But he had a task at hand; hopefully, if he could be quiet enough he may be stealthy enough to grab a bite to eat before…

His train of thought is interrupted by a feminine voice behind him. “Sebastian Thomas Maes, where _do_ you think you are going?”

He sighed, at least he tried. Perhaps he could try to bullshit his way out of this. “Good morning Mother, I was simply coming down for breakfast when―”

“Honey, it is nearly midday and you never eat breakfast with us. Now, if you are done telling spontaneous lies, tell me what you are actually up too.”

He winced at being found out in a matter of seconds, remembering that the great Charlotte Maes was sharper then pretty much his entire family combined. “I… yeah alright. I was hoping to head on down to the market today to see if I can find some more books to keep me occupied.”

“More books? That seems to be everything right now, every week you manage to find a new one.” There was a hint of disappointment in her voice. “I don’t discourage your pursuit of education sweetie, but you need to really get outside more. Find a job, meet more people.”

He rolled his eyes, walking down the stairs towards the kitchen and the front door. “Mother, I won’t get a good job in the sciences in London without a solid understanding of everything they may need of me. I don’t know what may happen in those English colleges, so I must be ready for anything.”

“You remind me so much of your father sometimes, always so passionate and… well, stubborn.” She hands the teen a plate of two pieces of buttered toast and a fried egg. “I’ve told you about how we got married, did I not?”

“Once or twice,” he replied sarcastically, taking a bite of toast. “Maybe three.”

His mother ignored him. “All he seemed to want is to read books, study, and write notes until I swooped in and took him outside. Unless you find a miraculous young woman to drag you outside, I fear you may be lost.”

Sebastian places his empty plate near a few other dirty dishes, ignoring the speech he had heard plenty of times before. “Yeah yeah, don’t be so dramatic. I’ll have plenty of time for romance _after_ I get my important life stuff out of the way.”

Charlotte smiles faintly, wrapping her arms around her son from behind. “I suppose you are right, you’ve always been responsible to a fault, my little one.”

“Mom, please…” He tried not to smile, but failed. “If we’re done, I’m going to the market.”

“Alright Honey, on one condition: I want you to bring Serena and Jenny with you.”

Sebastian silently turned to his mother. “Absolutely not, I don’t want to get pulled around in their… childish escapades!”

“You are overreacting, young man,” Charlotte replied firmly, walking over to a small sink to start washing dishes. “It isn’t torture to be with your family.”

“Mom, Serena took 3 hours to decide which necklace to buy last time, and she decided on both. And Jenny set fire to a stand giving out water to passerbys, I don’t even know how that was possible!”

“Then you best watch them.” She turns, giving a look to the boy that made him understand that the debate was over. “They will be ready soon, so you better get yourself ready.”

  
  


“Fruit cart… beekeeper’s stand… a hat shop?”

Sebastian wanders through the farmer’s market, glancing at a few stands along the way. “Who could make a living selling _only_ hats?”

He nearly jumps as he hears a sharp, loud gasp from behind him. A young girl runs towards the small shop, dragging Sebastian by the hand. “A hat shop?! Can we go in, Sebby?! Please, please, please, ple―”

Sebastian reaches down and closes the girl’s mouth, trying to hide the exasperation in his voice. “Yes, Jenny. Mother said you can find one thing to buy here. And I have to be the one to purchase it…”

He grumbles, but he couldn’t help but smile at the young girl’s excitement. “Yes!! Thank you!!”

She hugs his leg and he ruffles her light brown hair as another girl walks past them wearing a long white dress. “Perhaps I can find something to go with this dress. Good find, Jenny.”

Sebastian chuckles to himself. “You buy something for your appearance every time we visit, Serena, surely you can find something other than clothing or jewelry that catches your eye.”

The girl frowns, pouting slightly. “Don’t chastise me, Seb. I can spend my earnings however I want. And I want to look good.”

Sebastian rolls his eyes, walking with his sister to Jenny, who had sat a very confused hat salesman down to ask a multitude of questions.

“Serena, keep an eye on her, would you? I’d like to check a bookstand around the corner.”

Serena nods. “Alright, but be back soon. I’ll give you 10 minutes.”

“Nothing,” Sebastian sighs, placing a book down on a large stack of other rejected books. “Either uninteresting or I have something like it already.”

He yawns and stands from the stack of books he was examining. The young woman at the counter was eyeing him. “Did you find anything of interest?”

He shakes his head, preparing to leave the stand before the woman suddenly lightens up as if remembering something. “You’re a Maes, aren’t you?! Your family owns this town, right?”

He slowly nods, frowning; while he did secretly like being a member of a wealthy family and all that, being recognized by strangers was always something that made him a little uncomfortable.

The woman laughs. “I thought I recognized you! I saw you and your father here a few years ago. You have a very educated, scientific family, yeah? I might have something that interests you…”

She reaches down, fumbling through a stack of books and papers out of sight from outside the shop, and after a few moments of fumbling pulls out a large leather-bound book. There was no title or any writing on the cover. “I found this in my collection recently! I don’t know where it came from or who wrote it. The pages are blank, however there is writing on the inside of the front cover.”

She opened the cover and, surely enough, inside was some writing in symbols Sebastian didn’t recognize. He turns, giving the woman his full attention. “That is strange, I don’t recognize the language off the top of my head. If that is it I don’t think it will be of much use to me.”

The woman smirked slyly. “Now hold on, you haven’t seen the best of it.”

She pulls out some ink and a quill and she draws a line on the first blank page. Sebastian gives her a confused look and she simply smiles at him. “Give it a second…”

Then, the ink on the page sunk into the yellowish paper of the book, disappearing. Sebastian looked at the book in wonder and intrigue. He didn’t know what to say. The woman broke the silence. “It happens every time I write in it, and I actually discovered it when I spilled some ink on it.”

“I’ll take it.”

“Yes I… huh?”

“Name your price, I’ll pay it.”

Serena sighed in annoyance as Jenny walked out in a brightly multicolored jester hat. “I think it really suits me!” she exclaims happily as Serena simply smiles and examines a small diamond ring she had found in a nearby jeweler's shop. “I think it does too, you goof.” She turns her head to the figure running at them.

“Sebastian, finally! It’s been much longer than 10 minutes.”

He takes a moment to catch his breath. “Sorry, however it will be worth it. Look.”

He shows them the book and explains quickly what happened at the bookstore. Serena seemed interested, if not skeptical. “You expect me to take your word that you have a magic book?”

Jenny pokes her head between the two. “Magic book?!”

“No, Jenny, no magic. Just an… interesting property.”

Serena snatches the book from her older brother’s hands. “It is strange that I don’t at least recognize the script either, although I can say it is definitely old.”

Jenny pouts, obviously not happy about the idea of magic being thrown to the wayside so quickly. “C’mon, you don’t know it _isn't_ magic. Lots of my novels have these types of magic books in them and they all have secrets to them!”

Serena sighs, placing a hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “Jenny dear, reality is very different from your fantasy stories you obsess over.”

“Hmph. I think we just should be open minded.”

To emphasize her point, she sticks her tongue out and runs off in the direction of their homestead. Sebastian shakes his head at the display. “That girl… I’m surprised she is our sister sometimes. Neither you nor I had that kind of energy when we were young.”

Serena nods in agreement, chuckling under her breath. “Maybe she took our energy and now she has three times the energy of a normal Maes.”

“Please, Serena, there is no ‘normal Maes’.”

As soon as they got home, the three siblings got to work trying to brainstorm ideas about the origin and strange properties of the book Sebastian had bought. They had ruled out all chemicals and kinds of paper for being the reason behind the strange ink-absorbing properties the book had. Sebastian was getting increasingly frustrated. “Look, perhaps the paper is infused with a porous-substance or… I don’t know.”

Serena sighed. “No, that wouldn’t work like that. I really think we need to identify the language of the symbols on the front, we won’t get anywhere until we know where it originates from.”

Jenny munches on a cookie on the side of the bed the three were sitting on. “I have my bets on magic still.”

The other two ignore her. “Maybe a form of Greek? Or even Egyptian?”

“They didn’t make books like this, and this doesn’t seem to even match either of those styles. Perhaps it is a cipher?”

“No, it’s reading more like an actual language than a cipher. They look a little more random.”

“A magic language.”

“Jenny please could you not always jump to… wait, look!”

Sebastian points to the first page where a paragraph of text appeared, as if the page was a sea of water and the letters had floated to the surface. It was about six sentences long as far as they could tell and it was in the same mysterious language as the text on the inside of the front cover. Serena smiles in excitement. “Now we are getting somewhere!”

After several more hours, the three seemed to have made some progress. They had matched a few symbols to letters and were slowly translating the first few pages of the book. From what they could tell it was some old pagan spellbook, detailing old rituals and they figured it was from some old religion. Finally Serena gasps lightly, drawing the attention of the other two. “I’ve translated a line! It reads: when a change occurs the line of Time splits into all possible outcomes, thus varying realities of all possibilities.”

Sebastian gives his younger sister a confused look. “Serena, those are the exact theories I’ve been reading about in my books! They are very experimental ideas, and as far as I know very modern ideas. This book is _extremely_ old. Are you sure that’s what it is talking about?”

“I’m very confident. This language… it almost seems familiar…”

Jenny, who had joined her siblings a few minutes past at the mention of an old religion, piped up. “Lots of older religions had divine magical cults! I’m still holding onto my theory...”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Jenny there is no such thing as―”

Serena gasps again, shutting her brother up. “Wait, I understand! I get it now!” The other two stare at her in confusion. “I can read it!”

“What do you mean, you can read it?”

“What don’t you understand, you dolt?” She flicks her brother on the forehead. “I can read the writing.”

Sebastian huffs. “What, suddenly you can just magically…” He pauses as Jenny gives him a look of satisfaction. “You can just _spontaneously_ read the book?”

“That is exactly what I’m saying!”

Jenny plops herself down between her two bickering siblings. “And what does it say?”

“Well more of the same, a lot of weird science-sounding words and whatnot. Although…”

She trails off as she turns the page, seeming staring at a blank page. “Woah..”

Jenny gives her sister an inquisitive look. “Woah?”

“Woah. This page outlines a spell. A ritual, to explore alternative realities.”

“Alternative… realities?”

“Think of it like this,” Sebastian pipes up. “One day you have to choose between wearing a red shirt and a green shirt. When you make that decision, the universe splits in two, where in one you wear red and the other you wear green. After enough changes and decisions, you could take two universes and they would be nothing alike.”

“So if this thing is for real… I could visit a universe where my fantasy books are real life?!”

“I… that is a very specific extrapolation of what I said, but technically yes.”

Jenny turns to Serena in hyperactive excitement. “We have to try it!!”

She frowns. “Honestly, as amazing as this is, I think we should be more careful. Suddenly understanding a new language, appearing and disappearing texts, weird rituals, this is some strange stuff…”

Sebastian places a hand on her shoulder. “C’mon, Sis, nothing exciting happens around here anyways. I’m sure it’s nonsense but let’s at least try it. Jenny seems to really want to.”

Jenny looks to her sister with large pleading eyes. After a few moments of restraint, Serena gives in. “Yeah… we can try, but listen close, we’re going to need a few things.”

Serena had finished drawing the chalk circle on the hard stone ground and was nearly done with the small symbols on the inside ring. “Are you sure this is a good idea, Sebastian?”

Sebastian dismissed the question with a quick flick of his wrist. “Please, you know as well as I do that this is probably nonsense. If anything it’ll get Jenny to stop going on about magic and whatnot.”

Jenny walked in with one of the family’s goats in tow. “Sebby… are you sure we have to… kill it?”

She looked quite sad and had small tears in her eyes. Her older brother nods. “Yes, Dear. A lot of older religions required blood sacrifices, to show that we are really dedicated to the ritual. Don’t worry, you don’t have to watch, okay?”

She nodded slowly, giving one last hug to the large creature. “Okay… goodbye Toga…”

Serena holds her sister for a moment before looking her into the eyes. “Did.. you name the goat Toga?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you name it Toga because you couldn’t think of a name and just rearranged the letters?”

“...yeah.”

After a few more hours of finding various substances and placing them in the right position, Sebastian hands Serena the book. “I followed the directions you translated, however there is a phrase that needs to be spoken. You’re the only one who can read the text so you’re going to have to read it.”

Serena slowly nods and takes the book. Jenny stands behind Serena, averting her eyes as Sebastian takes a cold steel knife and slices through the goat's throat, the blood pooling in the center of the circle. “Alright, say it Serena!”

She nods and starts reading a passage from the book. Her words sounded like church bells and the phrases she read almost seemed to shine with brilliant holy light. Her eyes glazed over as the blood in the center of the circle moved on its own, forming a complex web-like structure made up of many symbols and glyphs inside the circle. Sebastian takes a step back, but finds he can’t leave the circle of blood, an unseen barrier surrounding the circle of chalk. Jenny’s eyes go wide and she bangs on the outside of the circle, her hands being stopped by an invisible force. She was screaming something, but Sebastian couldn’t hear her. He looks to Serena and his eyes widen. Her form was glowing with a brilliant white light and her eyes were closed. It almost seemed like she was smiling. Jenny freezes as she looks to Sebastian in a panic, eyes full of fear. Suddenly she is ripped to the other side of the circle at a speed that nearly knocks her unconscious. A black bile-like substance surrounds her body in a cocoon of filth and terror. Sebastian had seen enough.

“Sister! Stop this! Serena!”

Serena doesn’t respond, however holds out her hand and her eyes open. The world around him crumbled and all he could see was a white void while the echoes of his sister screaming his name echoed in his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, Purple speaking! This is so strange, writing for others and for anyone to see, it's quite humbling actually. This is my first real story I've written, based on a failed D&D campaign I tried to run recently. I had so many ideas and plans, and I didn't want them to go to waste, so here we are! I really hope you enjoy this all, and I hope you can be patient with me as I am still a very new writer, but that just means it'll be an adventure for all of us! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.
> 
> ~PurpleZelos


	2. Stillmount; 23rd of Eleasis, 1583 DR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talia Silverkin, her younger sister Navi, and her friends Misiri Murgol and Lucan Vyshaan find something strange after they hear a massive magical explosion after returning from the large city of Stillmount

“Look, you have a nice stand here and these clothes look to be of a good quality, I just have my concerns about your… friends here.”

The man gestures over the counter to a stout woman with ashen skin, small pupiless eyes, and long white hair standing next to a very tall, slender man with dark skin, shining blue eyes that seemed to be iridescent like small stars, and a calm expression. He turns back to the young human woman behind the counter of the shop. “2 silver pieces, I won’t go higher.”

She crosses her arms. “You misunderstand, Sir, these are homemade by myself and I have a child to feed, I can’t lower my price. 10 silver please.”

“Normally I would pay that without a problem, but I have concerns about what my money will be going towards.”

Hearing this, the short woman stands up from her wooden step stool she was sitting on and walks over to join her human friend. “Listen pal, she said she needs money for her kid sister.”

The man raises an eyebrow in doubt. “And how can I be assured my hard-earned coins won’t be used for any…  _ uncivilized _ purposes, Grey Dwarf?”

The short woman’s expression becomes more annoyed as she slowly smiles and cracks her neck. “Oh, keep this up and you won’t have anything to worry about other then how you’ll walk home without any―”

“Misiri!” The human girl flashes her friend an angry look, quieting her. “Must I remind you that he is a customer and therefore a guest.”

Misiri looks between the girl and the man, who now looked quite smug. She sighed and grumbled off back to her stool. “Yeah, yeah, I hear, ya Talia. Just tell our  _ customer _ the proper word is Duergar.”

The tall man looked up from a scroll he was reading to place a hand on the Misiri’s shoulder as she sat down, a small orange light glowing from his palm as it made contact with the Duergar’s pale skin. She smiles up to him. “Thanks, Lucan. You always know what to do to make me feel a little less… bloodthirsty.”

Having avoided another fight, Talia looks back to her customer. “I’m so very sorry about that, Sir, she’s had a tough life.”

“Heh, made life tough for others, more like. You know those Grey Dwarfs are from the Underdark right? Evil and disgusting creatures, like the world they hail from.”

“Please sir, if I may, please don’t judge my friends based on preconceived notions on what they are. They are simply my ride from here to my home, nothing more and nothing less.”

The man laughed dry, raising his voice so that people from the nearby shops in the market could hear. “You’re one of those types who sees the good in everyone, yeah? Well, I see things as they are, and I see an evil creature and a half-bred mistake. And I don’t feel comfortable giving my hard-earned coin to a human stupid enough to think they are anything else!”

Misiri stands and takes hold of a large steel axe that was leaning on the side of the stand. “Call me whatever ya like, but insult Talia another time and I hope you can make it to an infirmary with one leg.”

“You see what I mean!” He gestures to a group of young men who were having a drink nearby who quickly run over, giving dirty glances at everyone in the small stand. “As soon as it’s threatened, violence! It’s like an animal, and it’ll be treated as such.”

He spat on the ground, the other men following suit. Misiri turns to Talia, physically restraining herself from throwing the large axe at the men. “Listen, Tal, I know you don’t want this, but please let me have this.”

“Misiri, let’s just leave, we obviously won’t be getting any more trade…”

One of the men laughs. “Yes please, run back to whatever hole you all crawled from! You’ve tainted our city enough as it is!”

“That’s it!”

Misiri slides over the counter of the stand as the group of men take a few steps back, practically surrounding her. Talia reaches out, opening her mouth to say something, but Lucan places a hand on her shoulder, silencing her. She looks up to the man, but he says nothing, simply looking at Misiri.

The men laugh at the short woman. “What are you going to do? There are seven of us and we’re twice your height.” 

She lays her axe on top of her wide shoulders. “Ya know, I’ll give ya one chance to apologize to Talia over here. If ya don’t want too, well,” She laughs, smiling evilly at the men. “You’ll see exactly what I’m gonna do.”

One of the men yells, pulling a short dagger out from his side, running towards Misiri in the attempt to stab her. In response, the Duerger simply sidesteps, letting the man run right past her while moving her large axe in front of his legs, causing him to trip. She flicks her axe up, causing the handle to collide with the chin of the man as he falls down, knocking his head back as he falls to the hard dirt, unconscious.

The men pause, not expecting one of their own to be taken down as fast as that. One of the larger smacks the back of one of his comrades nearby. “Don’t chicken out! Get her!”

He rushes towards her, the other man following close behind with a small dagger in his hand. The larger of the two swings at the small woman, who ducks and slices upward with her axe, digging a long but shallow cut along his forearm. He growls in pain, but continues his onslaught, throwing more wild punches at Misiri. She dashes to the side, swinging the blunt side of the axe into the large man’s knee, breaking it. The man cries out and collapses. Misiri laughs. “C’mon ya pansies! For a bunch of smack-talking humans, you don’t hit very―”

Her gloating is silenced by one of the men cracking her in the jaw with the handle of a long wooden broom, causing the tool to shatter. The blow causes Misiri to stumble back and fall to the ground. The men smile. “Now! Get her!”

The four remaining men rush in, the two largest dog-piling onto her while the other two take their time throwing punches and kicks into the gut and face of the restrained duergar. The man who spoke to Talia laughs as Misiri was kicked and beaten. “You see? You are just an animal, beneath us! If you just stayed in your own decrepit lands none of this would have to happen.”

He drew a shortsword from the side of his belt. “I’ll make sure you remember your place, grey dwarf.”

Misiri grits her teeth, a bit of dull red blood dripping from her mouth. “Heh… don’t worry… I’m not done yet.”

Suddenly, the small woman’s body started to grow, her muscles expanding until she was just shy of the height of the rest of the men. Using the astonishment and confusion of the men, Misiri rips her hand free of the grip of the man to her left, grabbing him by the lapel, and throwing him into his comrade restraining her to her right. She quickly stands, drawing two daggers from her belt. Using her now large size, she knocks the two men who beat her to the ground, taking quick swallow swipes at their arms and legs. She exhales and returns to her original size. “That always takes a bit out of me... But listen here! You see this?”

She gestures to the men, either unconscious or simply too beaten to stand. “This is restraint! You were goin’ to kill me, weren’t ya? You call me an animal when I have more battle prowess and skill then any of ya! Disgusting. Now then, let’s finish this up.”

“Halt!”

Misiri freezes as a group of armed guards runs to the scene. “Drop your weapon, we are placing you under arrest for assault, creature!”

The short woman grips her swords tightly, before letting them fall to the ground. “Wait, no!”

Talia quickly hops over the counter to stand in front of the guard, who points their spears at the girl. “Move aside girl, unless you want to share the punishment of your friend.”

“No, you don’t understand! We were provoked, this was in self defense!”

“I doubt that. We know of her kind, they tend to attack first and never ask questions.”

“I do not lie!” She stands her ground. “Ask anyone. They will agree with me.”

The guards glance around the market, the few pedestrians who decided to stay to watch the fight nod, if not with hesitation.

The captain of the guards steps forwards. “It seems you are truthful then. However, I do not accept this level of violence in my city, I have to ask you to leave.”

Talia nods sadly. “I… understand. We will pack up immediately.”

The captain looks to the small stand. “You are a merchant then?”

“Oh, no I simply make clothes and come to Stillmount to sell them.”

“An artisan then? Who is your master then? I assume you are an apprentice.”

“No sir, my mother taught me, but I am here on my own.”

The captain pauses to think for a moment before turning to his group of guards behind him, gesturing to the unconscious men. They nod and move to start cleaning up the area. “Captain Devran Lock, young artisan. This man, he has gotten into several… outbursts with nonhumans in the past.”

“I see… shouldn’t he be arrested?”

“I’m afraid no, his opinion is one shared by many here. However, a dwarf saved my family from bandits when I was young and lived in the country far from the city. Who are you?”

“Talia Silverkin, sir. I am twenty years of age and I’m from the nearby town of Aberdeen.”

“I see… well that explains a lot. Well, Ms. Silverkin, I must go attend to this situation, however…” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small but heavy bag. “20 gold pieces.”

Talia stares at the small pouch, not quite sure what to say. “I… thank you, sir!”

“Of course, now you do really have to leave, for I’m afraid even my own soldiers won’t be as kind as I am. You must leave.”

“Right away, thank you so much!”

“C’mon, Sis! These problems make my brain deflate…”

Talia sighs as she lays back against a bale of hay. “Navi please, you need to finish your homework before we arrive back at Aberdeen. Arrok told me you are falling behind the other kids.”

The young girl groaned. “But it’s so dull and boring! You got to have an awesome battle with some bad guys in the city while I was stuck with fractions! It’s not fair!”

“Please, it wasn’t ‘awesome’, it was concerning. The blatant racism is getting worse, or at least more obvious… And don’t exaggerate Navi, it really isn’t that bad, the fraction bar is like a division sign, so you divide the top and bottle number to get your―”

“Division!” Navi stands, sticking out her tongue and pretending to die, collapsing in one of the other hay bales in the back of the covered wagon. “I’m allergic to division… bleh…”

“Gods, Navi, quit acting and let’s just move onto something else, we can come back to fractions later.”

Misiri pokes her head in from the front of the large wagon, face having a few bandages covering some of the cuts and bruises she received. “Hey Tal, come up here. I think the shrimp needs a break.”

“Hey! I’m almost taller than you!”

The young woman slowly stands and stretches. “Alright, but only for a bit. Navi, please get problems one through five done before I return, we can go over them when I do.”

“You’re killing me, Sis...”

“Oh, alright. One through four.”

She giggles quietly at her younger sister’s defeated expression before stepping through the heavy cloth covering the inside of the large wagon, squinting at the incoming midafternoon light. On the left sits Lucan, who held the reins to the two horses driving the wagon and to the right sat Misiri, who grinned at the young woman.

“Finally! I get the kid needs an education, but it sounded like she was dying back there.”

“Hardly, just being a little difficult. What is it you wanted from me?”

“Can’t I just ask to talk to ya for a bit? Always business and formality with you, breaks my heart. Reminds me of Lucan actually.”

The tall half-elf turns and smiles in approval.

Talia stares curiously at the man, as something has been bugging her for the longest of times. “I’ve always wondered, Lucan… I know you can’t speak, so how do you communicate? You always just seem to smile or give us a look and we know exactly what you want. Is it magic?”

Misiri looks to Lucan with a hesitant look, which he responds to with a simple shrug. Misiri sighs. “Valid question but sit back, it’s a story and a half.”

Talia nods, sitting cross legged between the two. “Ya see kid, to summarize, Lucan wasn’t the most loved individual in the Feywild, which as you know is where all the fairies and pixies and whatever are. With his mother being an Eladrin, or as you humans say ‘High Elves’, his father being human was considered offensive. They considered humans a sort of lesser being, so breeding with one… well people weren’t happy. Enough so that they decided to do somethin’ about it.”

Lucan looks sadly into the distance and Misiri gives him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “They killed his parents and were going to do the same with Lucan, however they decided they would make his life worse than death… they cut out his tongue and burned the house down, leaving him to wander the Feywild alone.”

Talia's eyes went wide, looking at the tall half-Eladrin who looked sad, but gave her a kind smile, letting her know it was alright. Never would she have thought that someone as calm or caring as him would have gone through such trauma. “My lord… I’m so sorry Lucan.”

Misiri nods. “Yeah… it was lucky that he wandered into the Shadowfell when he did, otherwise I wouldn’t have found him!” She chuckles. “As for how he communicates with us, that’s a different story. But you were right, it is magic.”

“Lucan has a unique passive magical ability. He is able to alter and manipulate emotions, although he mainly just sends his own emotions to convey thoughts and ideas. Honestly, it’s lucky he is so nice as he is, he could turn everyone here into his own personal slaves or cause us to go crazy without much trouble!”

Talia gasps and Lucan shoots Misiri a look of disappointment, which she waves off. “Whatever, you know I’m right. Anyways, we appreciate you askin’, kid. Most people are too nervous to ask.”

Suddenly, the whole wagon shakes violently, the horses whinnying in fright as the immense sound of an explosion causes everyone to cover their ears. Talia slowly looks around, the ringing in her ears still quite overwhelming. When her hearing finally returned, she caught Misiri in the middle of a long string of colorful language. “―fuckin’ Gods with a flaming nightstick! What in the fuckin’ Nine Hells was that?! Oh shit, Lucan!”

She reaches over as Lucan nearly falls off the wagon. Talia helps pull him back on the seat. “What’s wrong? Is he okay?”

“Yeah… he’ll be fine. All elves have amazing hearing, and not being able to speak makes you a great listener too, he’ll just be dazed for a while. I’ll give him a potion, you check on your sister.”

Talia nods quickly, hopping back in to find Navi face down in a bale of hay. “Oh my Gods, Navi!”

The young girl jolts up. “Wha, huh?! What?! I’m alive?!”

She blinks slowly. “Wait, what? Why are we freaking out?”

Talia’s panic changes into confusion. “You… didn’t hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“The  _ explosion _ Navi.”

“The wha? Sorry, I was sleeping.”

“I…” Talis pinches the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. “No. I am not even going to try figuring this out.”

Misiri pipes back up from the front. “Hey Tal! Come ‘ere!”

She quickly hops back to the front. Lucan was lying on the ground, simply getting his bearings back with Misir sitting next to him. “He’ll be okay, however I need to stick with him. But look!”

She points towards a tower of smoke that came about a quarter mile out into the grassland. “I think that’s where the explosion came from. We should figure out what it is!”  
“What? That is incredibly unsafe!”

“Kid whatever caused that could be dangerous or even useful! I hear stories of magical artifacts falling from the sky or whatever, we should really check it out!”

“Are… you sure?”

“Yeah! Take Navi, I’ll be there shortly.”

“Are we there yet?”

“Navi there was smoke, we will know when we are there.”

“You said a half mile, it’s been ages since we started walking.”

“It’s been five minutes, please stop complaining it’s been a long day…”

“Alright, but only because this is so exciting! I hope it’s a fallen angel or a cool magic super sword!”

Talia ignores her sister, stopping to check to see if she wasn’t mistaken. “Navi… does it feel warm to you?”

“It’s early summer and we are surrounded by grass taller than we are and… oh yeah, it’s very hot… unnaturally hot.”

“You know what’s stranger?”

“Stranger then it being hot in summer?”

“No Nav, I saw smoke and it’s getting really hot, but there is no fire. Listen, I don’t hear any crackling or anything.”

“Oh… that is really weird. Maybe if we― AHHHH!”

Navi suddenly falls from view and Talia freezes. “Navi? Navi?!”

Her eyes darted around and she inches towards where her sister disappeared. Suddenly she hears her voice from below. “Ow… I’m okay!”

“Navi! Be careful, we don’t know what’s going on here! Where are you?”

“It’s like a… what are they called… big divot!”

“A crater?”

“Yeah! And… oh. Oh shit.”

“Navi! Watch your language!”

“No there’s a guy!”

“Who even taught you that… a guy?”

She slowly moves the tall grass aside to see the crater that her sister fell into. It was a large crater, maybe 40 feet across and about 10 feet deep. She saw where her sister fell and slid before coming to a rest a few feet from the center. And sure enough, in the center was a man, lying on his side curled in a loose ball. He seemed to be her age, perhaps a little younger. As she steps through the edge of the crater, the heat becomes extremely intense, nearly unbearable. But as she got through it, it dissipated and got extremely cool causing a shiver to go down her spine. She carefully treks to her sister. “Is he… alive?”

“I dunno. Probably dead.”

“Navi! Be sensitive. Stay there, I’ll check…”

She slowly approached the figure who seemed quite dead in the singed dirt and realizes that not only was it strangely cold, but that it was quite quiet, as she could only hear her own footsteps as she approaching the young man. She kneels down next to the figure, brushing off some loose dirt from the body. She gasps and takes a step back, turning to her sister. “A young man, human!”

Navi went wide eyed. “Maybe I was right! A fallen angel!”

She shakes her head before placing it on the chest of the young man, listening for a heartbeat. She smiles lightly when she hears one, however frowns when she doesn’t hear the next one. Many seconds pass before she hears the next beat. “His heart is beating, just very slowly...”

She slowly rolls the man to his back, trying to get a better look. He was wearing a white button-up shirt which was stained with dirt and a grey overcoat. She marvelled at the fabric, as it felt very expensive and she figured this boy must be from a noble family, or at least a very wealthy one. She brushes her hand over his cheek, examining his face. “Strange…” She thought to herself. “He doesn’t look like he fell here, more like he was placed here.”

The voice of Misiri echoes behind her. “Hey, kid! Where'd you go?”

Navi stands and waves. “Over here! It’s a person!”

Misiri and Lucan run over, with the two running past Navi to stand behind Talia. “Is he alive?” Misiri frowns. “Looks pretty dead.”

“That’s what I said!”

Lucan frowns at the two, clearly unhappy. “What?! All I’m saying is that he looks quite dead!”

The half-elf shakes his head, pointing towards the faint rise and fall of his chest. Talia looks up at the three. “He is alive, but he’s not doing well. Please Misiri, let’s take him with us.”

Misiri frowns. “No, that sounds like a bad idea. Humans in the area are already a handful, now we got them fallin’ from the sky. Seems like a bad omen.”

Talia stands. “He may die if we leave him here, we have to do something.”

“Obviously, he was cast out from somewhere violently with magic, this crater is basically a beacon of magic, I can feel it…”

Lucan sighs and looks Misiri dead in the eyes for a few moments. Misiri rolls her eyes. “Yeah, okay fine, you make a good point. We’ll take him. Just remember, it’s a lot of responsibility to take one of these in.”

Lucan frowns, giving Misiri an unsatisfied look. “What? I know he’s not a dog, Lucan! Gods, you are all so cold.”

After a few minutes, the four managed to move the boy’s body into the back of the wagon, laying him down in a makeshift bed of hay and sticks.

Navi slowly pulls herself up onto the makeshift bed, poking at the boy’s face. “Soft hair. I like him.”

Talia pushes her off the bed. “Navi please, be courteous! He may be injured. We don’t know what happened, he could be in very bad shape.”

“Fine.”

“Now, did you complete the problems I asked you to finish earlier?”

“Tal! After all of this you’re still going to make me do this?!”

“Magical falling people does not stop you from learning. Now did you finish?”

“...yeah.”

“Navi...”

“Most of it.”

“Navi.”

“But it's going to take forever! And I wanted to see Jav before the day ends…”

Talia sighs. “I know you want to see Jav, but you have to do your homework, Arrok was very kind to allow you to join his lessons with his family without accepting any payment. Let’s see… if you finish these five problems now you can be free for the rest of the evening.”

“Really? Thank you!”

“Good.” Talia smiles. “Let’s see… ah, let’s go back to simple fractions.”

“Oh no…”


	3. The Boy with Purple Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian finds himself in the home of Talia and Navi Silverkin one month after arriving in this strange fantasy-like world

“Finally…” Talia places the last clean dish away into a small cabinet, wiping her brow with her sleeve. “Dishes are finally done, Navi is asleep, and now I can finish washing the pots from dinner and I can go to―”

A small creaking sound caused her to nearly jump. She turned to take a quick glance into the nearby hallway and an open doorway, knowing inside lay the young man she had brought it only a few days ago. “Is he finally waking up?”

She rushes to fill a small glass with cool water and snatches one of the leftover muffins from dinner one the way to the small bedroom, placing both on a small tray. The young man is still lying on his back, eyes shut and breathing very slowly as he had been for the four days since being brought to the small home. Talia sighs. “I guess not…”

She sets the tray down on a chair across from the bed and sits down next to the sleeping figure. Placing her hand gently on the boy’s forehead, she frowns as it was quite warm to the touch. “A fever..? His condition must be getting worse, I should grab a cool towel or maybe some ice.”

She starts to stand but notices the boy’s eyes were now shut extremely tight and his jaw was clenched. His breathing picks up as well, becoming short and shallow. Talia’s eyes widen and she runs through the house in a quick panic; gathering a small towel and soaking it in cool water and placing some ice and salt into a small watertight pouch. She places the cloth over the boy’s forehead, laying the ice pouch over the cloth to keep it cold.

Talia watches the young man closely for several minutes as his breathing slows slightly and his jaw relaxes. She exhales in relief, moving the tray from the chair to the nightstand next to the bed so she could sit down, deciding that in the off chance his condition worsened, she should be ready. She props herself up with her arm and feels her eyelids get heavy. “Okay… I just need to stay awake.”

To say Sebastian was in pain would be a massive understatement, as he jolts awake with an incredible pain in his head, as if someone had grasped his consciousness and was crushing it. His eyes fly open and he shoots up, breathing heavily and clutching his forehead. After a few moments, he lowers his hand to find a small damp cloth and a cold pouch of ice water. “What? Where… am I?”

He blinks the fuzziness of sleep out of his eyes and looks around the small room, noticing a small metal tray with a muffin and a glass of water. His eyes widen as he devours the small pastry and downs the water, realizing how famished he was. About halfway through the muffin, he notices a young woman on the other side of the room, asleep in a chair opposite from his bed. He immediately stands up, staggering slightly and trying not to fall as blood rushes through his body rapidly. “Jesus… how long have I been out?”

He tries to take a step forward, his legs buckling, and he falls to the hard-wood floor. “Fuck!”

Talia's eyes fly open as she is ripped from her sleep at the loud noise. She draws a dagger, eyes darting around the room in paranoia before landing on the boy, face down on the floor, groaning in pain. She doesn’t know what to say at first, slowly moving down to help the boy before she gasps, noticing that the young man’s irises were bright purple and almost seemed to radiate with energy. “You… your eyes…”

Sebastian’s body aches, as if everyone in his village took their farming tools and all smacked him at once, on every spot on his body. He slowly stands, wobbling slightly as he does. “Ugh… where the hell am I?”

“You’re in my home.” Talia sighs, placing the knife down on the nearby chair and reaching out to the unsteady teen. “Give me your arm, we need to get you back to bed.”

He jerks back from her reach, nearly falling over in the process but manages to stay upright by holding onto the nightstand, feeling a wave of nausea pass over him as he suppresses the urge to vomit. “Don’t… touch me. I’ll be… fine…”

Talia frowns and walks forward, grabbing his arm and wrapping it around her shoulders, guiding him back towards the sturdy bed. “Don’t be ridiculous, you shouldn’t be up. Your wounds need to heal, and you need rest.”

Sebastian starts to retort, however he finds that he really does want to lie down at the moment, so perhaps complying to this young woman’s request wouldn’t be the end of the world. He cautiously lays back down into the cool sheets of the bed, turning to look at Talia. “Yeah… alright. But again, where the hell am I?”

Talia picks up the cool rag from the back of the bed, wringing it out and cleaning it with fresh clean water. “I told you, you are in my home. My colleagues and I found you unconscious when we were returning from trading in Stillmount.”

“Stillmount… that’s… a large city to the south of us, right?”

“North, but yes. Not as big as Waterdeep however.”

“Yes… I see… I am still learning the layout of this region.”

Talia folds the damp cloth, placing it again over Sebastian’s forehead. “You aren’t from around here?”

“Urm… yeah, I guess. Pretty far from here actually.”

Talia is silent, simply staring into the strange purple eyes of the stranger. To her, they seemed to pulsate with a strange energy in an almost hypnotic way. They felt magical, and she could swear that the magic seemed familiar but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Sebastian clears his throat, uncomfortable with the amount of attention he is getting. “I uh… who are you exactly?”

Talia’s face flushes, embarrassed that she had been staring. “Oh, I’m so sorry! My name is Talia Silverkin, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She smiles kindly at Sebastian, who nods and gives a small smile back. “I see, and don’t freak out about staring, people tend to pay… close attention to them.”

Talia frowned. “I see… your clothes seem very expensive. Are you a nobleman?”

Sebastian blinks in confusion for a moment. “Oh, well sort of. My parents owned my town, but it means very little now. Please, don’t think you need to treat me with any extra respect or anything.”

“Very little? Did… something happen?”

Sebastian swallows nervously. “Uhh… well… not really, my parents and town they are… just gone. They are all gone…”

He looks away sadly, doing his best to look sad enough to discourage further questions. He isn’t even fully sure what happened a few weeks ago, and he would rather not have it known publicly. Talia nods in understanding. “I see… I am sorry.”

“It’s… it’s alright. Now, I’m feeling less woozy now so if you don’t mind, I think it’s time for me to go.

“What? No, you need your rest Sebastian.”

The boy smirks. “I think I’ll be alright.”

Slowly sitting up, Sebastian attempts to take the cloth of his forehead, however, he is stopped when Talia walks over and places a hand on his chest, pushing him back down onto the bed. “This isn’t up for discussion.”

The boy frowns, not used to being treated like this. “Sorry, but I don’t think you understand. I don’t take orders from you.”

Talia crosses her arms. “In case you forgot, Sebastian, I saved you from death. As long as you are under _my_ roof, I make the rules here. The first one is when I say stay in bed, you stay in bed.”

“Then I guess I will be taking my leave.”

“What?”

“If I have to take orders from you here, I will leave. I have to keep moving anyways.”

Talia gives him a confused and shocked look. “Have you no appreciation? You haven’t even eaten yet and you are in no condition to leave.”

“Not true, I had a muffin.”

“A muffin?! That isn’t nearly enough! You are going to stay, rest, and eat until you recover!”

“Quit mothering me, I am fine.”

“Oh, so you are in denial _and_ you are an idiot.”

He frowns, his dismissive tone gone and replaced with one of annoyance. “Hey. I didn’t ask you to save me, and while I am appreciative, I need to leave. I don’t belong here. And do you really think these cheap insults will get under my skin?”

Talia smiles slyly. “No. I know they do.”

He sighs in annoyance but stays silent. He doesn’t want to give her the benefit of being right. Talia smiles in response. “Game, set, and match. Now sleep or I’ll have Navi come in and knock you out.”

“ _Fine_.” He glares at her. “Since my life is being threatened, I guess I will.”

“Wonderful.” She turns to the exit. “Now, call if you need anything…”

Instead of turning to leave, she stares at the boy curiously, frowning in confusion. “You haven’t told me, who are you?”

He blinks in surprise. How did he forget that? “Oh, right. I am Sebastian Thomas Maes.”

She shakes her head and turns out the door, smiling and chuckling to herself. Of course he would give her his full name. Nobles. “Sebastian. Alright,” She steps out of the room. “Goodnight Sebastian, sleep well.”

Sebastian frowns and lays back into the bed. He had to admit, this has been the most comfortable place he had slept in since he arrived a month ago. _That girl…_ He thinks to himself. _How could she treat him like this? You save one life around here and you can make him do whatever the hell you want._

He shakes the thought out of his head, no reason to dwell on it. He will sleep, perhaps eat something, and then leave. He had to keep moving. He couldn’t risk them finding him.

When Sebastian opened his eyes it was midmorning, the warm sunlight warming his face from a window on the opposite side of the room. “Damn… I’ve haven’t slept this long in a while,” He yawned. “I wonder if Mom has...”

He blinks for a moment, his memory quickly catching up to him and small tears beading in the corner of his eyes. He shakes his head quickly, wiping the small tears away. No reason to cling to the past, it won’t do him any good right now. After taking a moment to stretch his tired limbs, Sebastian steps out of the bed and notices a chair on the opposite side of the room. On the seat was a pile of folded clothing with a small note on the top:

“Good morning, Sebastian. I have brought you some clean clothing for you to wear while I clean what you already have. I apologize it is not as fine as what you may be used to, but I promise it will serve you well, as I am the one to have made it. Your breakfast will be ready soon, I hope you enjoy frittata. Yours truly, Talia.”

He can’t help but smile at the genuine kindness of the gesture, but he quickly frowns and shakes off the feeling. Now was not the time to get attached. He bends to pick up the folded clothes, taking a moment to admire them. A simple white button-up shirt with a pair of brown trousers. The cloth felt tight and, while extremely simplistic, was quite sturdy and didn’t feel cheap. He was impressed and while he felt a little uncomfortable about being seen with these… simple clothes, he had to admit that the craftsmanship was up to his standard.

After taking a moment to change into the clothing, he straps a book bag over his shoulder and starts planning his day. “I will have to give my thanks to Talia for the clothes and food, and perhaps after that I can leave. I’ve been here for a few days now meaning I’ll need to find a fast way of travel to gain the same distance from them… perhaps if I can get in contact with…”

His train of thought was cut off as he spots two pairs of eyes staring at him through the window. The eyes to the right widen, turning to tackle the one to the left at being noticed. Sebastian quickly runs over to the window to see the two small humanoid figures scampering around the corner to the front of the house. He considers opening the window and giving chase before he pauses at the scent of freshly baked bread. He swallows and feels his stomach grumble, not having smelled such a good smell since leaving his home.

He walks out of the small bedroom and into the hallway leading to the main living area, complete with a small fireplace, a small kitchen area, and a door leading to what seemed to be a room filled with clothes. Talia is kneading some dough on the kitchen counter, unaware of Sebastian’s presence and humming to herself. He smiles slightly, an idea popping into his head.

He walks slowly behind Talia, leaning on a nearby counter, and waits for Talia to put the dough aside. After a few moments, she gives the dough a few final folds before pinching and shaping it into a supple ball, rolling it into a small log, and placing it into a metal loaf pan. Sebastian smiles, leaning next Talia and out of her immediate sight. He clears his throat, announcing his presence to the distracted girl. “Hey.”

Talia’s soul nearly leaves her body as she whips around, grabbing a nearby large kitchen knife and she points it at the boy, who’s expression was halfway between the shock of having a knife pointed at his chest and stifling a laugh. Seeing this, Talia’s expression shifts from terrified, to confused, and finally landing on exasperated. Sebastian finally settleS on suppressing his laughter, and simply smiles. Talia sighs in annoyance, moving back to her remaining dough, setting the large knife near her. “I was about half a second from stabbing you, Sebastian.”

“Don’t worry, I can take it.”

“You can take a knife to your stomach?”

“I’ll… walk it off.”

Talia places the last loaf of dough into its pan, moving them both into a small wood-burning oven, wiping her brow. “Please don’t make me regret saving you.”

“I’ll do my best,” He yawns again. “Jesus, I don’t normally feel this refreshed after sleeping for a few hours, I guess I’ve missed sleeping in a bed.”

Talia’s face changes to one of mild concern. “Sebastian, you’ve been asleep for over a day, you slept until morning after we talked last, through the day, and the next night. We’ve been worried.”

Sebastian frowns in confusion, sitting down in a chair to stare at the wooden floor. “I see… I guess the fall took more out of me then I thought… Then I need to leave now, I’ve been here longer than I should have,” He stops talking for a moment to replay what had just been said to him. “We? Who’s we?”

At that moment, Navi runs into the room, pouncing onto Sebastian and knocking him to the floor. “You’re awake! That’s great! I thought you were dead!” She grins widely. “Woah, you _do_ have purple eyes! I guess Sis was right! I almost thought they weren’t, but it was hard to see through that window...”

“Window? Wait, you were one of those two kids spying on me earlier!”

“Whaaat?! No, I would never!”

Talia clears her throat, visibly annoyed. “Navi dear, please get off of our guest.”

The young girl blinks, stepping off the thoroughly confused teen. “Oh, oops! Sorry I got a little excited, you’ve just been asleep for a while, it’s good to see you up and moving!

“It’s uh… all good, kid. Now I really must be going…”

Reaching into the oven with a metallic grabbing tool, Talia retrieves one of the finished loaves of bread. “Would you at least stay for breakfast? I have been working hard on this bread and the frittata is almost done.”

“I’m not sure... “

Navi quickly turns back to Sebastian, her bright blue eyes wide and pleading. “No, don't leave! Just stay for a bit, please! It’s been sooo boring here!”

As hard as he tried, Sebastian knew he couldn’t say no. After all, he couldn’t ever say no to Jenny when she got like this, and Navi reminded him of her. He shrugs in defeat. “Yeah, okay fine. Only because that bread is one of the best things I’ve smelled.”

Navi grins, “Yes! Thank you!”

Talia can’t help but smile. “Navi, you’ve already eaten your food. Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Her tone quickly became more motherly and stern. “Perhaps the Truedream house for your education?”  
Navi’s smile faded into a pout, obviously hoping her older sister had forgotten about her schooling. “Maybe…”

“And wasn’t Jav supposed to come meet you? I’m surprised you’re still here, you always are going on and on about spending time with him.”

“Fine!” Navi huffs in embarrassment. “I’m going, jeez. But only because I haven’t seen Jav in a few days!”

The young girl runs off out of the kitchen to her room to grab her supplies before running out the door. “Bye! Love you!”

Talia shakes her head. “That child… a wonder that I am directly related to her.”

Sebastian chuckles to himself before looking over to the oven, which had started to have small wisps of black smoke coming from the front. “I think it’s starting to burn, Talia.”

Her eyes widen as she rushes to retrieve the two loaves of bread still inside the oven. She grabs them and quickly moves to the counter to set them down, but in her rush one of them falls. Sebastian reacts quickly, grabbing a towel and catching the fallen loaf pan before it hits the ground. He winces at the high heat of the bread, moving as fast as he can without dropping it and setting it down next to the other loaves.

Talia sighs in relief. “Thank you for warning me, I think in the chaos of the moment I forgot what I was doing. Oh, and thank you for catching that last…” She trails off, her expression quickly becoming concerned as she notices Sebastian's right hand, which had taken on a bright red burn from the high heat of the blazing pan. “Are you alright?”

Not wanting to make a big deal out of this, Sebastian swiftly hides his hand behind his body. “What? Yeah, I’m totally fine. Nothing wrong here.”

Talia wasn’t having it, grabbing his left wrist and leading him out the door to the back of the house, to a small bronze hand pump. “Nonsense, that pan must have scorched you, it needs to be cooled off.”

“Look it’s nothing, alright? It’ll heal, I’m perfectly alright,” he protests. “You don’t need to make a big deal out of it.”

Talia starts to pump some ice-cold water out of the pump and pulls Sebastian’s hand into the stream of water, causing him to stumble slightly. “Don’t give me that.” Talia replies firmly. “The cool water will lessen the pain.”

She gently splashes the cool groundwater onto Sebastian’s hand, causing him to wince as the liquid touches the sensitive skin. While she does this, Talia also fills up a small container with the cool water and once again leads Sebastian's hand into the container, making sure his entire hand was submerged. She then takes the boy’s other arm, leading him back into the house as she takes a small first-aid kit from a nearby closet. “Alright, sit.”

She points to one of the chairs in the dining area. “Talia, really this is unnecessary―”

“ _Sit._ ”

Sebstian quickly shuts his mouth and sits obediently in the chair, awaiting further instructions. Talia reaches for his submerged hand, however Sebastian pulls it back slightly. Talia looks him in the eyes, clearly exasperated. “Sebastian, I don’t have time for these games.”

Sebastian sighs, averting his gaze in embarrassment. “Look, I didn’t want to tell you, but it does really hurt…”

Talia’s face softens, and she smiles at him. “It’s alright, I’ll be gentle, okay?”

Sebastian sighs and nods slowly. Talia reaches into the cool water and gently wraps her fingers around his hand, being careful to make as little contact with his palm as possible. She lifts it out of the water and takes a rough towel and dabs the water off of his hand. Sebastian winces as the rough fabric touches the sensitive flesh of his palm as Talia gives him a sympathetic smile. After drying his hand off, she takes a long rag and dips it in a bottle of a green colored solution. She slowly places it on the burned part of Sebastian’s hand and starts wrapping it around. Sebastian resists the urge to pull his hand back as he feels a jolt of energy into his hand as the damp rag makes contact with his skin. “What the hell is this?!”

Talia gives him a confused look before putting the pieces together. “Oh, I soaked this rag in a healing potion. Normally drinking it will help most physical wounds, however for something like this I like to soak a cloth and wrap it around the wound, the slower healing will reduce the overall pain.”

“Pain?”

“Well, the potion is a magical drink that will make your body heal itself,” she explains slowly. “Imagine you get a cut on your arm. Would you want your muscles and injured tissue to just jerk around and piece themselves back together? A broken bone sliding back into place, muscle ripping apart to go back to how it was before being injured… drinking these potions willy nilly is dangerous.”

She takes a dry rag and wraps it around the medicine-soaked one to keep it in place. Talia glances up at Sebastian to make sure he is alright. He winces, but nods back. She quickly ties it off, securing the bandage to this hand. She starts to take her hand off his, however Sebastian takes his other hand and places it on hers. His purple eyes lock with hers, almost seeming to radiate with energy. His voice is quiet, but genuine. “Thank you.” 

She simply nods, surprised by the genuine gesture. “I just… it’s my own fault that you were hurt so it was my responsibility to take action for your recovery.”

Sebastian sighed, of course she would feel that way. “You know, I was fully capable of taking my hand out of the water on my own, right?”

After several moments of silence, Talia quickly removes her hand from his. “A-Anyways, I suppose you would like some food. I will bring it out.”

She quickly shuffles back into the kitchen. Sebastian looks at his injured hand. It was well wrapped and was already feeling better, the throbbing was finally going down and the heat wasn’t as intense. Although, he did feel flushed for some reason. He reaches up and touches the bridge of his nose, frowning as it is warm to the touch. He furrows his brow, confused as the pan did not hit him there. He decided to shake off the feeling, as it is probably nothing.

Although, he did feel extremely energized, as if he had just drank several cups of coffee in only a few minutes. Glancing at his reflection in a nearby window, he notices that his eyes look different. It had taken him a while to get used to his change in eye color, but now they were radiating with energy, glowing a faint deep purple. He looks down again at his patched-up hand, wondering if the magical solution being used to heal him had anything to do with this.

After a few moments, Talia returns with one of the four loaves of bread along with a thick frittata, a large pitcher of water and a kettle of tea. The two spend the next hour learning about one another. Talia talks about managing her clothing business and Sebastian speaks about his life helping to take care of his hometown.

Talia laughs at his description of the small European town. “A small town of farmers, all of which were human? Sounds exceedingly dull, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Sebastian frowns at her statement. “Ghent was wonderful actually,” he responds defensively. “Perhaps you are just used to with the chaotic lifestyle that seems to be everywhere in this land.”

“Chaotic?!” She laughs. “Come now, there is nothing chaotic about our town! I think yours was just _incredibly_ boring, and your slow mind just can’t keep up.”

“Oh, insulting me now, are we? Please it takes more than petty insults to get under my skin.”

Talia laughs. “Really? I have not known you for long and I can already tell practically _everything_ gets you worked up.”

Sebastian stands, his tone turning defensive. “That isn’t true! I just…”

He trails off as he realizes that he is just proving her point and sulks down into his seat, as Talia giggles at his annoyance. “Jesus, you are just like Serena.”

Talia gives him a confused look. “That’s a name I haven’t heard before. Who is this Serena?”

Sebastian sighs, not planning on disclosing any personal details. He surely can’t tell her everything; and even if she could help him, she would never understand, right? “She is my younger sister, Serena Alice Maes. She just loved to try to get under my skin just to prove a point. Or to simply have fun being obnoxious.”

Talia smiles. “Sounds like someone I would get along with.”

Sebastian shoots her an annoyed look. “Ha ha. But no, she’s… not around.”

Talia’s smile fades. “Oh, I’m so sorry, has she passed away?”

“Oh, no. She’s not anywhere close. I just can’t contact her anymore. She got involved with things I do not agree with… I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Talia stares at Sebastian for a few moments, wondering what to say. “I… understand to a point I think. My parents were murdered for getting involved with something they didn’t fully understand…”

Sebastian looks up, his purple eyes reflecting deep sorrow and empathy. “I’m sorry, my parents are also gone, murdered as well.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Talia sighs, looking at her half-eaten slice of frittata. “It is alright though… even if I don’t understand why exactly they were killed, I can still be happy with their memory.”

“If you do not mind me asking, why would someone kill them? If your parents were anything like you or your sister, I do not know why a single person would want to end their life.”

She smiles faintly. “Thank you… but I don’t know if my answer will be enough for you. I am not so sure myself… My mother, Reyli Silverkin, was an agent to the mayor of Aberdeen: Mayor Ularis. My father, Calvin Silverkin, was a former scholar in Waterdeep. They were killed by a cult of sorts… You see, extreme cults and religions were attracted to our town with the intent to use our unique people for their own gain.”

“Hold on, what do you mean the town? Unique people?”

“Oh, I forgot you aren’t from here! My apologies, we don’t get a lot of visitors… you are in the town of Aberdeen. It was founded several generations ago when a large amount of non-humans were pushed from the nearby towns of Waterdeep and Stillmount, they congregated here and created a town where many kinds of people may live in peace, although most are pretty skeptical about humans because of what happened in the past…”

Sebastian nods. “I see… well continue with your story then.”

She sighs, trying her best to recall every detail. “When I was quite young, perhaps only 6, someone new came to Aberdeen. It was a rare occurrence, especially from what we thought was a human. As of right now you, me, and Navi are the only full humans in the vicinity. However, this human was a very sick male by the name of Clarion and my parents took him in to care for him as he recovered, since being the only humans meant they knew what humans needed best.”

Sebastian frowns, taking a bite of bread. “You say what you thought was human, if he wasn’t that, what was he?”

Talia smiles softly. “A dragon.”

Sebastian’s eyes went wide, nearly choking on his bread. Talia laughs quietly at his reaction. “Yes, a silver dragon to be specific. From your reaction I can tell you know very little about them, so I will explain a few things. Metallic dragons are the good ones while chromatic dragons are evil, to simplify. Clarion was a silver dragon, so he was good. Other metallic dragons consist of copper, gold, and even steel dragons. Silver dragons, however, are the most social. They love to shapeshift into a human form and interact with creatures which many other dragons would consider to be ‘lower’ forms of life. In fact, Clarion told me about a particular individual that he was keeping an eye on… what was his name… Jonas? Either way, Clarion taught me a lot about dragons, however that is when they came. A cult of individuals hunting dragons for what we knew, however I feel that there was more to their purpose… they came to kill Clarion.”

Sebastian was deep in thought. “And your parents died protecting Clarion?”

Talia shakes her head. “No, not quite, although they would have. The cult was expecting a wounded dragon, not a fully healed one. Clarion obliterated them, however he was forced to leave the town to prevent the fight destroying too much of the town. No, what happened next would be the death of them. After learning the existence of this cult, my parents went undercover into the cult to learn of its true purpose. However, someone notified them of my parents’ true nature, and when my parents returned…” 

Talia trails off, staring into her tea. Her voice had broken and she was obviously holding in a lot of feelings, Sebastian could feel it, and he had to do something. He stands and walks over to Talia, quietly sitting down next to her and bringing her into an embrace. He felt a few stray tears hit his back, soaking into his shirt.

“I-I… did my best to raise Navi from then on… she was only a newborn… sometimes I feel like I could never do as well as they could have… I’m no mother to her, she deserves so much more than this… I’m so stupid… feeling abandoned by my parents even though I know they loved me unconditionally and did the best they could to protect us. But they’re gone now, and what do I do?”

Sebastian doesn’t know what to say. What can he say? He only just met this girl, and yet here he iss holding her like he knew her his entire life. For whatever reason, she trusts him and he is not going to waste it. After all, he understands how she fells. Everyone he knew in his past life is gone now because of him. His sisters, the only things remaining from what he once knew, are out to kill him. And they aren’t even themselves anymore. He abandoned everything and everything had abandoned him. If this place is his new existence, he can’t run away. “Yeah… you’re being pretty stupid.”

Talia swallows once before pulling away, confused. “W-What?”

“You’re being real dumb.”

“I… what?”

Sebastian stands, gesturing outside to where Navi is running and playing with a small boy her age with dark ashy skin and white hair. They are both giggling and smiling, kicking a small ball between one another. A kick from the ashen boy suddenly causes the ball to smack Navi square in the forehead, causing her to fall to the ground. This leads to an enraged Navi to chase the now panicking boy around before tackling him. They both look at each other and laugh. “If you think you haven’t made your sister as happy as she can be, you are being very dumb.”

He walks back over to her, sitting back down. “In the span of a half of a day, I’ve watched you maintain your home, check in with your sister, keep her up to date on her studies, cook, deal with my bullshit, patch me up, and still make time to make me feel welcome in a place I honestly felt like I had no business being.” 

He sighs. “Honestly Talia, no normal person could do half the things you could do, and I’ve known you for a solid 5 hours most. I don’t know how much this means coming from me, but I’ve been impressed by nearly everything you do. You don’t know how long you have with people, Talia. Especially your family. Never doubt anything you do with them, never take any small moment of happiness for granted.”

He crosses his arms and looks her dead in the eyes. “And I swear if I ever hear you say anything negative about yourself again without reason, I’m going to give you this whole talk again, you hear?”

Talia blinks, quickly nodding. Never, not once did she expect him to say anything like this. No, never did she expect _anyone_ to say this, much less a stranger she found dying in a field only days before. She takes a moment to process his words, something standing out to her. “To give me this speech again, you must be here to give it to me, correct?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well, I thought you had ‘places to be’? You can’t give me this speech again if you leave.”

Sebastian is silent for a moment. He does need to leave, he knows he should, however he did just march himself into a corner. “…everything I used to know is gone. I don’t belong anywhere now but…”

He sighs, obviously struggling to find the right words. “If you want the help around the house or something, I suppose I could… you know… I don’t want to intrude but―”

“Yes!” Talia interrupts him. She quickly blinks before clearing her throat, calming her excitement. “Yes, it would be no trouble at all if you wish to stay in Aberdeen for a bit.”

He smiles. “I must admit, I’ve come from a… expensive lifestyle and this more rural living is a bit jarring to me. I apologize if I don’t fully understand things you may consider… basic.”

She shakes her head. “No really it’s no problem at all. I will teach you anything you need.”

“I just… want to help you Talia. I want you to see that you’ve done nothing short of a fantastic job doing what you’ve had to do.”

He swallows, noticing that while he had left her embrace, their arms are still around one another and he is still rather close to her. She is staring into his eyes with an expression he could not pinpoint. He is confused, he had only met this girl yet… he felt so close. So safe. Out of instinct he draws closer to her and her to him. Then, the loud slam of the front door shattered the silence between the two. The two jump and hop back into their original chairs as Navi runs into the kitchen.

“Sis!” She whines. “Class is over and Jav and I are bored and...”

She trails off as she scans the room; looking between Talia, whose face is suddenly a deep shade of red, and Sebastian, who suddenly is very interested in his piece of bread and was staring intensely at it. Navi’s eyes widen as she puts the pieces together.

“Is the bread that bad?”

Sebastian blinks in confusion and shock, not expecting the question. “…Huh?”

“You’re staring at the bread. Sis’ bread is normally a little dry. Do you not like it?”

“N-Navi! Please, there is no reason to be so rude.”

Sebastian couldn’t help but laugh at the child-like naiveté of the young girl. It seems like she put the pieces in the wrong spots. “No, your sister’s cooking is fantastic.”

“Oh, okay! You were just giving it a weird look, but it just must be your eyes.”

“My… eyes?”

“Yeah, duh,” she sighs like this is very obvious. “It must look strange with purple eyes. Does bread look strange if it’s purple?”

Talia doesn’t quite know how to respond to this. “Navi… a person’s eye color doesn’t mean everything they see is that color.”

“But… my eyes are blue, and a lot of things are blue!”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean your eye color causes that.”

“Your eyes are grey, does everything look like those photographs I see in museums?”

“I… no Navi, the sky is blue just like you see. I don’t see in black and white.”

Sebastian is close to losing it, attempting to hide his laughter in a nearby napkin. Talia glares at him, however that seems to only make things worse. “Alright. Since you two find this so entertaining and I made us this food, you two can clean it up.”

“What? No fair!” The two say in unison. Navi looks to Sebastian, her large eyes practically sparkling. “You’ll stay right?”

Talia smiles at him from across the room. “He will.”

“Yes!”

He nods. “Yes, until further notice I will be staying here. I hope you don’t mind.”

Navi smiles widely, jumping up and down chanting, “Purple-Eyes is staying!”

He frowns, handing her the half-loaf that is left. “Now then, help me carry this back to the kitchen.”

Navi pouts. “Awww you’re lame just like sis.”

“What?! I am not lame.”“You totally are! You barely know me and you are already commanding me around like you own the place.”

Sebastian rolls his eyes, caving in. “Okay fine, only because there are a few things. I have this covered.”

She beams at him before taking back off out the door, but not before grabbing a hunk of bread. Talia shakes her head. “Already letting her walk all over you?”

“Oh shut up.”

“Please.” Talia rolls her eyes, cleaning one of the serving dishes with a rag. “You ramble so much more than I do.”

“You’ve known me for 6 hours!”

“I have a feeling for these things.”

“That sounds like a copout Talia!”

“What does that even mean!”

A voice rings through the two’s bickering. “Gods almighty, it’s been a little under 2 days and you’re already at each other’s throat like an old married couple.”


	4. Discourse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being introduce to Misiri and Lucan, Sebastian meets with Aberdeen's Mayor, a dragonborn named Kraklyn Ularis. Sebastian also finds that his dimensional travel has given him more then just a change in eye color

Misiri and Lucan stand next to the entrance of the room. “Exactly like an old married couple.”

Talia scoffs. “Hardly.”

Lucan smiles at the two. Misiri rolls his eyes. “Of course you don’t see it, Lucan.”

The tall half-elf frowns, but says nothing. Sebastian blinks, turning to Talia in confusion. “Okay, pardon my insensitivity, but who the hell are these two?”

Talia starts to open her mouth but Misiri runs over to her to throw her hand on her mouth to silence her. “I am a god, boy! I found your broken body and healed you! Now you must serve me, to repay the debt of your life!”

Sebastian stares for a few moments unfazed before slowly pushing the small woman aside. “...yeah, no. Talia, who are these people.”

“Misiri Murgol and Lucan Vyshaan, a duergar and half-elf respectively. Misiri runs the local smithy and Lucan is the proud owner of the most popular and only bar and tavern in Aberdeen.”

Lucan smiles kindly and Misiri rolls her eyes. “I could have convinced him, I nearly had my own lil’ servant to command around.”

“Little?” Sebastian scoffs. “You’re the little one here.”

Misiri whirls towards him, visibly fuming. “Oh, ya think you're funny, eh? Havin’ a laugh?”

Lucan steps in front of his short friend, smiling and reaching out to shake Sebastian’s hand. He shakes it hesitantly. “I ‘ve noticed that you haven’t spoken a word since you’ve been here…”

Suddenly Sebastian is filled with a feeling of understanding, like in an instant he understood everything and felt warm and comforted. “Oh I see! You can alter and transfer emotional states to other people! Magical emotional manipulation.. What is it called… oh right, pathokinesis!”

Sebastian happily shakes Lucan’s hand with Lucan smiling widely, having someone understand his abilities being a nice change of pace. “I’ve read about these kinds of abilities recently in a library a few weeks ago! That means you are some part Eladrin right? Elves from the Feywild.”

Misiri sighs, sitting down next to the large dining table and taking a bite of bread. “Damn, that’s the fastest he’s ever connected with someone. Always the friendly one…”

Talia smiles, grabbing some of the dirty dishes. “Is that jealousy I hear?”

“Ha! Please.” Misiri chuckles lightly. “He can be the friendly one and I can be the realistic one.”

Sebastian turns to the grey dwarf. “And you, Misiri! You must be from the Underdark right?” he exclaims in excitement. “I can feel it…”

“Uh, yeah… Talia, may I speak to ya for a moment?” 

Misiri leads her friend by the arm to the far corner of the room, out of earshot. “Who the hell is this kid we found? No normal person just  _ knows _ what plane someone comes from. Especially if they’re human, they don’t really study other planes.”

Talia frowns. “He says he’s from a place where they didn’t have magic. Even if he is using magic, I doubt he would know. He wouldn’t lie―”

“Talia, you’ve put too much trust in this kid, you’ve only known him a day.”

“I don’t think trusting a good person is a bad thing.”

“We found him in a crater. We don’t know what he is capable of.”

The two watch Sebastian talk to Lucan in excitement. Sebastian rambles about something he learned about the Feywild with Lucan smiling.

Misiri sighs. “Look, I can see ya like the kid.”

Talia’s eyes widen in shock. “What?! Misiri you can’t be serious. I don’t have time for―”

Misiri raises an eyebrow as Talia turns away, continuing to wash the last of the dirty dishes in silence.

“I get it, you haven’t connected with any humans outside of trade since your parents,” Misiri reaches up to place her rough hand onto her shoulder. “but you don’t know who this guy is. You just have to be careful. I’m not sayin’ he’s a bad guy, we just aren’t sure.”

“I... suppose your argument isn’t flawed…”

The duergar nods and walks over to her companion. “Aight’, let me talk to the kid.”

Lucan frowns, but steps aside as Misiri places a hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, leading him to the other side of the room.

“Uhh… Misiri, right? I don’t really understand―”

Misiri stops him with a look. “Listen here  _ pal _ , I’ll be frank with ya, no outsider can just identify which plane others are from without magic. I don’t know who in the Nine Hells you are, but Talia tells me you’ll be staying with ‘er.”

Sebastian frowns, not expecting this. “Yes I will be, for only a short time.”

“Good. However, if you even  _ think _ of doing anything to hurt her… well…”

She smiles grimly, her grip on Sebastian’s shoulder tightening and her pupil-less eyes gleaming with bloodlust. “I hope you can live with only half your body.”

Sebastian nods quickly. “Y-Yes ma’am.”

“Wonderful.”

Misiri drags Sebastian back to the others. “Now. If he’s going to be staying here in Aberdeen we should really speak with Ularis.”

Talia nods. “You’re right. Sebastian, if you’re feeling up to it we should see him immediately.”

Sebastian crosses his arms. “That name sounds familiar… Who exactly is this?”

Misiri grabs his shoulder, leading him outside with Talia and Lucan following closely behind. “On the way kid.”

The main street was busy with many people interacting and conversing. Many were headed to a local farmers market, others heading in and out of local shops, and several others just enjoying the bright summer’s day. Sebastian escapes Msiri’s death grip and walks back to Talia. “So  _ who _ exactly are we seeing?”

“Mayor Kraklyn Ularis, a white dragonborn. He’s been the elected mayor of Aberdeen for nearly 50 years now and if you are to live here, even temporarily, we should speak to him.”

Sebastian looks around at the several people walking around them, several of them stopping to stare at him. He swallows nervously. “People are… staring…”

Lucan gives him a comforting smile and Sebastian feels a warm feeling of safety fill him. Talia sighs. “Yes… I’m afraid with the suspicion of humans and the lack of visitors here in town, many might be a little… wary around you…”

“I see…”

The four approach a large two-story building with massive twin doors in the front. Misiri places a hand on Lucan’s back to stop him. “Alright then. Talia, take our guest in to see the Mayor. Lucan and I have things to do.”

Lucan gives a confused look to his friend, and she shoots him a hard look back, as if to silence him if he could speak. Talia seems to miss the exchange. “Oh alright, I’ll see you both soon then!”

They both smile and walk off. Misiri sighs. “Listen Lucan, I know you’re confused, but trust me, this is for the best. Something about Sebastian doesn’t sit right with me. Ularis will probably make him leave. He was always hesitant about humans.”

Lucan frowns, crossing his arms. Misiri rolls her eyes. “Yeah, I know you like him, you like everyone!”

Talia and Sebastian sat in the small waiting room in front of a large set of mahogany wood doors labelled ‘Mayor’s Office’. Talia frowned, glancing over at Sebastian who looks quite uncomfortable. She slowly places a hand on his shoulder, giving him a concerned look. “Are you alright?”

“I suppose... something just feels off to me. Like something bad is going to happen... Not to mention I’m pretty sure Misiri isn’t too fond of me.”

“It’ll be fine. Remember, my parents were very close and loyal to Mayor Ularis, I’m sure he’ll be happy to have you stay. And don’t be worried about Misiri, she’s just a little rough around the edges and is protective of me.”

Sebastian slowly nods and is about to mention Misiri’s “talk” with him when the doors slowly open and a gruff but welcoming voice comes from the office room. “Come in.”

As they enter, Sebastian immediately takes note of the office, as it is quite large. He isn’t surprised, as from what he had heard dragonborn aren’t exactly the smallest of creatures. The back wall is almost entirely taken up by a large window overlooking the entire town. The office is covered in decadent art pieces and expensive-looking artifacts are mounted on the walls. The large white dragonborn sits before them behind an equally large wooden desk, his luminous blue eyes staring back at them. “Ah, Talia, my dear. It has been too long.”

Ularis smiles kindly at her, seemingly ignoring Sebastian altogether. “How is your sister? Is she keeping up with her studies?”

“Of course, Mayor. It was smart of you to suggest she take lessons from Arrok, she is learning lots and is enjoying the company of others her age.”

“And what of you? I watch you make the trek to Stillmount and Waterdeep every week, have you done anything interesting for yourself?”

“Please, Mayor. I have plenty going on, I don’t have time to waste on recreation.”

“Nonsense!” He laughs. “Always work with you! You need some time for yourself!”

Sebastian awkwardly looks between the two, clearing his throat. Talia gives him a confused look before understanding. “Oh! I nearly forgot! Mayor, this is Sebastian, a friend of mine.”

As Ularis finally turned to look at Sebastian, the teen immediately knew he didn’t like the Mayor one bit. He couldn’t put his finger on it, something about this dragonborn made him angry and frustrated. Something about him felt disingenuous. “I see. Someone you brought from Stillmount?”

Talia blinks. “Oh, no I―”

“Are you asking for my blessing?”

“Kraklyn!”

Talia crossed her arms in a flustered manner, mainly as she knew the mayor was most likely messing with her and was purposely interrupting her. “No. Misiri, Lucan, Navi and I found him unconscious on our way back from Stillmount. He is from somewhere much farther than here, somewhere without magic. He wishes to stay here in Aberdeen for a while and I offered for him to stay in my residence. We have come to ask if this was alright.”

Ularis nods slowly, contemplating her words. “I see... Talia if you would, I would like to speak to him alone.”

Sebastian finally steps forward. “Pardon me, but I don’t see why that is necessary.”

Ularis stares down at Sebastian and the color drains from his face. Talia nods to the dragonborn. “No, it’s alright. I will be waiting outside.”

“Thank you dear.”

She walks out the door, giving one last smile to Sebastian before closing the door behind her.

Ularis and Sebastian sit down across from one another, staring at each other, analyzing. Sebastian finally breaks the silence. “You can be frank with me, Ularis. You don’t want me here.”

The large Mayor doesn’t break his firm gaze. “No. No I do not.”

“Why? I thought this town was for ‘every race to have a home’ or whatever.”

“It was a slogan for marketing back when we did that. You humans can live in whatever city you want without worry, do you think a half orc can just stroll into a city without attracting the attention of the entire neighborhood?”

Sebastian frowns. “So, it’s because I’m human then? For a town praising itself for being inclusive, this is rather ironic and hypocritical.”

Ularis huffs. “For a human that claims to be from somewhere without magic, you seem to use it just fine.”

Sebastian raises an eyebrow, confused. “What are you talking about?”

“I can feel your aura, human. I felt it when you came here a few days ago. You are innately magical, so either you are lying, aren’t giving us the full picture, or are stupid.”

“Trust is a two-way street, Ularis, and I’m not really feeling it from you either.”

“I could care less about your feelings on the matter. Tell me, you could find residence in any city, what do you want here?”

“I seek nothing, whatever ulterior motive you think I have, you are wrong.”

“Humans  _ always _ have secret agendas.” He sighs in frustration. “Regardless, I am obligated by law to at least hear what you want.”

Sebastian smiles, knowing exactly how much the dragonborn was going to hate this. “I wish to stay in Aberdeen, for at least a few months.”

Ularis frowns. “Fine, as long as you don’t cause trouble―“

“And I wish to stay with Talia.”

Sebastian swore he saw a large blue blood vessel bulge beneath the mayor’s bright white scales in rage as the large man stands.

“Absolutely not!”

The boy smiles. “And why not? I have done nothing wrong and you can’t make me leave based on my race, that would violate all the town's ideals. It seems you don’t have any power over me.”

The two continued to stare each other down. Finally, Ularis sits back down slowly, sighing. From his nostrils blew what seemed to be a white smoke, and it made Sebastian shiver as it blew past him, the air extremely cold. “Against my own wishes, I can’t make you leave or refute your housing location... It seems Ms. Silverkin has grown attached to you.”

Sebastian smiles in victory before slowly crossing his arms. “No, it’s never this simple. What’s the catch?”

The mayor smiles a large, toothy smile. “Everyone loves her, human. If you do anything, and I mean anything, to hurt her, having to leave town will be the least of your worries.”

“That goes for both of us.”

The dragonborn stands angrily. “Don’t test me, boy,” he snarls. “I care about Talia deeply, as I’ve practically raised her after the death of her parents. Which is why, if you take one wrong step, I have legal right to give you whatever punishment I see fit.  _ Any _ punishment.”

Sebastian furrows his brow. He absolutely didn’t trust the Mayor, but there wasn’t anything he could do, and he had pushed his luck far enough. “Fine.”

“Good.” He taps a button on his desk and the door to his office slowly opened. “Good news, Talia, your... friend can stay.”

His voice was strained and hesitant, and Sebastian smirked at the fact that someone he disliked was forced into such a position. While the situation was more than a little shaky, Ularis’ discomfort made Sebastian laugh a little inside. Talia beams in response. “That’s fantastic. It will be fine if he stays with me, yes?”

Ularis’ eye twitches in frustration. “Yes... he may.”

Talia hugs the large mayor, her arms barely making it to his back. “Oh, thank you!”

The Mayor eyes Sebastian angrily and the boy just smiles back. Talia quickly composes herself. “Umm… yes thank you. We will leave you to your business then.”

“Yes, thank you.” The white dragonborn looks at Sebastian with frustration. “I hope your integration with the town goes smoothly,  _ Sebastian _ .”

Talia turns to Sebastian immediately as they exit the hall. “He wasn’t too hard on you, was he? I think he may be a bit... protective of me. He helped raise me after my parent’s death after all and I think he may be apprehensive towards humans after that cult invaded...”

The young man frowns. As he wanted to inform her about what happened in the office, he didn’t think she would take it well. Even if he didn’t like the guy, he did raise her and he doesn’t want to ruin that for her. “He just cares about you, I think. But everything went fine, real smooth-like.”

She sighs in relief. “That puts my mind at ease. I was honestly a little worried he would refuse. Especially with you living with me. And Navi.”

“I suppose that he was a bit... apprehensive. I can always live somewhere else, it’s really no big deal.”

“No, no! It’s alright!” Her voice comes quickly, taking Sebastian by surprise. “I could really use your help around the house. Besides,” She smirks. “I think you owe me for saving your life.”

“Somehow I doubt you will ever let that go.”

“Not yet, no.”

Navi sighs, finishing one of the many math problems writing on a loose sheet of paper. The pure, unadulterated boredom was killing her and she’d give anything for just a little entertainment. She looks up as she hears a tap on a nearby window. Frowning, she stands and walks over to the small pane of glass, beaming when she sees a small ash-colored boy standing awkwardly behind the glass. “Jav! You’re here!”

Jav smiles. “Hello, Navi!” His voice is faint and almost distant, as if he is keeping his voice down to prevent someone from overhearing him. “It is good to see you.”

“C’mon in!”

Navi swings open the window. Jav’s happy expression shifts into one of apprehension. “Are… you sure?”

“Yeah? Homework is so boring… I need your help to keep my mind from melting!”

“I… don’t think it works like that Navi…”

“Shut up and get in here!”

Navi sticks nearly her whole body out the window, wrapping her arms around the confused boy and pulling him violently through the open window, the two falling to the ground next to one another. Jac slowly sits up, the world spinning around him. “That… wasn’t necessary.”

“Eh, it was more fun.”

“Speak for yourself…”

“Don’t be a party pooper Jav, now let’s go to―”

Her voice is cut off by a knock at the front door. Jav’s eyes go wide in fear. “Oh no, this was a terrible idea…”

“Calm down! I got this…”

She bolts to the door, pulling it open to Talia and Sebastian.

“Sis, you’re back!” Navi ran up and hugged her older sister.

“Hello Dear.” Talia smiles warmly at her sister, but slowly frowns as Navi refuses to let go. “Umm… could you let us in Navi?”

“Nope!”

Sebastian gives her a confused look. “What? Why?”

“Uhh…” Navi’s eyes dart between the two, trying to think of an excuse. “Because… I’m starving…?”

Sebastian frowns. “That doesn’t seem like any way to speak to your sister.”

The young girl stuck her tongue out at Sebastian. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

Sebastian was about to retort before looking up to see Jav slowly trying to step through a window. He freezes when he notices Sebastian staring at him. “Uhh, Talia? Who is that?”

Talia looks up. “Oh, Jav! It’s good to see you!”

Jav quickly pulls himself out of the window and stands next to Navi, who was giving him a glare. “U-Umm… h-hello Ms. Silverkin…”

“Oh please, there is no need for such formalities!”

Sebastian looks in confusion between Talia and Jav. “Did… you not see him sneaking around?”

“What? No, not Jav, he’s the sweetest boy around!”

“Right…” Jav swallows. “Thank you, Talia.”

Talia smiles. “Jav lives in the Truedream House on the outskirts of Aberdeen, where Navi gets her education.”

Sebastian crosses his arms. “I see.”

Navi looks between everyone, trying to find a way to relieve tension. “C’mon, Sis! Let’s get lunch going!”

Talia rolls her eyes. “Fine, fine. I will get started on dinner. Sebastian, can you watch Navi in the meantime? I don’t want any more excitement today.”

“I suppose I can. Leave it to me.”

She smiles and walks into the house. Navi turned towards a nearby tree. “C’mon Jav, it’s okay, you can come out!”

Sebastian frowns, turning to where he thought Jav was, however was shocked to find the doorway completely empty. He turns back to Navi to see the young boy appear from behind the tree.

Sebastian frowns. “Wait, how did he do that? Invisibility?”

Navi beams. “Jav is a drow! Like a... dark elf, right?”

Jav nods nervously. “Umm… yeah.”

Sebastian watches as the young boy emerges out from the shade of the tree, finally getting a better look at him. He has obsidian skin with small streaks of dark cobalt blue snaking across his dark skin and long copper-colored hair pulled back in a bun. Sebastian’s eyes widened as he noticed the shy child’s eyes, which were a pale purple and periwinkle. Jav quickly made eye contact and his eyes widened, seeming to be just as surprised, slowly approaching the wide-eyed teen.

“Your eyes... are like mine.” His voice is quiet and almost a whisper, although it is full of wonder. “Do you also have gifts?”

Sebastian blinks and sits down to be eye level with the small drow. “No kid, I’m just a human. I can’t turn invisible like that.”

Jav shakes his head in disagreement. “No, I can feel it. Your eyes glow with the same gift that I have.”

He plucks a small flower from the nearby garden and holds it up to Sebastian. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. After a few moments, the flower quickly wilts before igniting and fading to dust. The dust starts to crackle and small electrical charges and sparks crackle in his hand. Sebastian is flabbergasted. “What… is this?”

Jav smiles faintly. “Magic.”

Navi gasps loudly, sitting down next to Jav. “Isn’t it awesome! From what I’ve been told, it usually takes people years to learn magic, but a very small number of people can do it naturally!”

Jav nods. “Yes… this happens when a powerful magical creature mates or grants power to an individual, with the child possessing innate magical prowess. However, this magical nature may not take form until the grandchild of the person granted power, or even the grandchild’s grandchild. The magical nature of the bloodline may never even come to form.”

“C’mon Javy! Tell him how you got powers!”

Sebastian stares curiously at the young drow, who was staring into the small maelstrom of electric charges and dust in the palm of his hand, watching the small bolts of electricity jump between the tiny particles of dust. “I… didn’t know my birth parents. A human couple found me when I was only a few months old and took me in. They raised me for most of my life until I was around 14, however the local mages got word of my existence. Humans really don’t like drow, so they thought of ways to try to kill me, however I managed to avoid each one. Finally, they came to my home and burned down the house, killing my parents…”

Navi places a hand lightly on Jav’s far shoulder, pulling him into a light hug. “Hey… I was just being energetic, you don’t have to tell him everything.”

Sebastian nods. “Yes, while I am curious, these are obviously painful memories, I don’t want to push.”

Jav shakes his head again. “No, it is alright. Besides, this is the important part. When the mages captured me, they thought of themselves as merciful and didn’t want to outright kill me… so they banished me. They opened a door to the Astral Sea and tossed me through…”

Sebastian frowned, as if straining to remember something. “The Astral Sea… you mean the Astral Plane?”

Jav nods. “It goes by many names, the Astral Plane, to Sea of Stars, or even the Silver Void. It is a massive infinite expanse of silvery nothingness in all directions, with the occasional block of rock or other things. I would have gone insane being trapped there for however long I was there, however something in me activated when I entered the Silver Void… it’s like I blacked out. However to an extent, I was awake, like I was dreaming in reality.”

Sebastian nods slowly, trying to wrap his head around Jav’s words. “And how did you get here?”

“Well, the only way in and out of other Planes is by portals, however I could not create one, so by random chance I found a naturally occuring one, called a color pool. This one led back to the Prime, and I landed on the outskirts of this town… Arrok, my adopted father, found me and I’ve been living with him ever since.

“I think I understand… but you are only maybe 16? With the rarity of these color pools, why are you not much older?”

“Time does not pass in the Astral Sea. Since I was not fully awake, it could have been decades, centuries even. Millenia maybe. However, by comparing what I remember from my life before the Void and after, I estimate it being only a decade or so.”

“Amazing… and being exposed to the Plane gave you magic?”

“Sort of… I’m not really sure myself, as many others travel there without gaining abilities, so I don’t really know.”

Navi beams. “Isn’t he the coolest!”

“Oh, please, you give me too much credit.”

“Nope! You deserve all the credit!”

Navi lightly punches the drow in the shoulder, scaring him and causing him to lose control of the magical storm in his hands, the lightning heading straight towards the house. “Oh no!”

“Oh shit!”

Sebastian panics, jumping in front of the incoming attack, bracing for the sparks to hit him, however he doesn’t feel anything. He slowly opens his eyes, suddenly realizing he had caught them in his left palm. He waits for the pain to set in, however the sparks simply levitate in his hand, continuing their violent cracking. His eyes widen as he feels the magic surging in his hand. He concentrates as the sparks suddenly stop moving, as if they were frozen in time. Navi sits down next to Jav, both watching intently. “I’m… I’m doing it!”

Navi’s shocked expression changed into one of wonder. “Jav was right! You are a mage!”

Sebastian swallows nervously. “Okay... watch this.”

He closes his hand around the sparks and when he opens his palm, in his hand is a single silver coin. The kids watch wide-eyed. Sebastian flicks the coin and it disintegrates into a mist smelling faintly of cherries. Jav smiled gently at Sebastian while Navi beams, trying to keep herself together. “I told you, you have the same gifts as me.” Jav raises his hand, the mist swirling into his hand, into a small silver sphere. “You can cast magic.”

Navi couldn’t contain herself any longer. “OH MY GOD! This is awesome! No one can cast magic in Aberdeen except for Jav. And maybe the water guy, but he’s weird... but now you can too!! This is amazing!”

Sebastian laughs loudly. “I can’t believe it! It’s just like the stories I used to read with Jenny!”

He focuses this energy he felt through his body, feeling it fade through his limbs and into the surrounding air. It felt like plucking strings, cosmic strands permeating everything. With a flick of his wrist, three small blue-tinted darts form in front of him, floating in midair. Jav frowns, standing. “Sebastian… be careful, you were simply doing magic tricks before, I recognize this spell. I don’t think you are ready for this…”

“Don’t worry kid, everything is perfectly under control.”

In that moment, the three darts fly straight forward, towards the two surprised teens. Sebastian snaps back to reality, reaching out to stop the three magical darts only a few feet from the teen’s faces. “Okay… maybe it isn’t… completely… under control…”

Sebastian’s breaths were heavy and labored, restraining the darts and slowly pulling them towards him. “Okay… here we go.”

Jav opened his eyes. “Sebastian wait, those will be unstable soon!”

“Unstable?”

Sebastian could barely get his word out before the three darts vaporized, sending a small shock wave out, blowing a small dust cloud over Navi and Jav, while knocking Sebastian into a nearby tree trunk.

“Ugh… wait, Sebastian!” Navi regained her senses, running over to him, who was lying on the ground next to the tree. “Oh no, no no no! Talia is going to kill me…”

Jav slowly approaches her. “No, it’s okay, he’s okay, look!”

Sebastian slowly opened his eyes groggily. “Ugh… my everything hurts…”

“I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have been so encouraging…”

Sebastian sighs, sitting up. “Hey, it’s alright. I might have gotten a little overconfident.”

Jav sits next to the two. “A little might be an understatement.”

The front door of the house swings open, Talia running out. “What happened?! I heard a explosion and a loud crack and…”

She trails off, looking at the three next to the tree, specifically Sebastian rubbing the part of his back that made contact with the tree. She crosses her arms, entering mother-mode. “Alright. Who wants to tell me what happened?”

All three swallow in sync. Navi spoke first. “Well it’s a funny story really… cause we were all in front and just messing around, speaking of which Jav has gotten really good at―”

Talia glares at her younger sister and she shrinks back, leaving Sebastian in front. He blinks before turning back to Navi and Jav. Jav simply shakes his head and Navi gives him a worried look. “Sorry, it’s up to you now.”

“Traitors.” He sighs, slowly standing up, wincing a bit. “Heeey, Tal…”

“Nicknames? That’s new.”

“Yeah, nicknames just between a couple of… friends…”

Talia simply stands there, not convinced in the slightest. Sebastian sighs. “Yeah, not my best anyways. Look, we were just messing around and… well…”

He extends his hand, a small cyan flame glowing in his palm. “I uh… did something.”

Talia gasps, slowly approaching. “This… this is magic!”

“I know! Cool, right?”

“I thought you said you came from somewhere without magic.”

“I do! This is very new…”

Jav approaches the two. “If I may… What he is doing is a very small spell known as prestidigitation. He can basically create any harmless audio, visual, or other sensory sensation on a small scale. A small flame, some smoke, a scent, a small object, anything really.”

Talia smiles at the two. “This is extraordinary! This is… wait… what was the loud bang I heard then?”

Sebastian’s smile slowly fades. “I uh… well… might have created several small force darts that exploded in my face so…”

Talia’s expression was hard to read, Sebastian guessed it was somewhere between disappointed and angry. “And uh… that shockwave  _ might _ have sent me into the tree so my back is a little sore…”

“A little sore?”

“Yeah! It’s no big deal, just a little―”

“So what you’re saying is that you made a bomb and launched yourself careening into the trunk of a tree, potentially breaking your spine?”

Sebastian frowns, about to complain about how she didn’t have a right to speak to him like that before he noticed a small tear forming in her eyes. His anger fades. “Woah, hey Talia, it’s alright. I’m okay.”

“You better be!” Talia yells. “You messed with something you don’t understand and you could have been hurt!”

He sighs. Perhaps he was a bit careless. “Here, let’s go inside for a bit, okay?”

She nods slowly, turning and walking inside the house. Sebastian gives a quick smile to Navi and Jav, letting them know it would be alright, and follows Talia inside. She was sitting on a chair pulled from the dining room, sitting in the middle of the kitchen. “Well?”

Sebastian sighs. “Look… I got carried away earlier, and I’m sorry. I endangered Navi and Jav.”

“You did, but you also endangered yourself.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“Why not?”

“Because you know those two, you barely know me.”

Talia laughs dryly. “I don’t see why I can’t be concerned about all three of you.”

Sebastian crosses his arms. “I just want to know why, why do you care so much?”

“That’s a stupid question Sebastian.”

“I’m just some kid you picked up off the side of the road!” Sebastian feels his anger rise. “And now you’re treating my injuries, mothering me, and you asked me to stay with you. It doesn’t make any sense to me!”

“Oh fine, I’m sorry I wanted to be kind to you!”

“But why me?! I’m just some nobody, why do you care so damn much?!”

Talia clenches her hand, but takes a breath and looks up at Sebastian. “You aren’t a nobody, Sebastian.”

He looks at her for a moment before turning away. “You don’t know what the hell I am…”

Talia sighs and steps forward, wrapping her arms around Sebastian to grasp his hands lightly, catching him by surprise. “I don’t care who you are. I care about you, whether you like it or not, and no matter who you are. My reasons aren’t any of your concern, just know that I care.”

She lets Sebastian turn towards her, still holding his hand lightly. “I care that you listen to me and can understand me. I asked you to stay because I wanted the company, and I mended your injuries because I did not want you to be hurt. There is no other reason other than that.”

He sighs. “I… suppose you are right... “

“I am silly.” She laughs lightly. “Really, Seb, you are so dramatic sometimes. Just trust me when I say that I care about you, even if our time together has been brief. Sometimes connections are just… made like that.”

“Well… you don’t see me complaining.” He smiles lightly. “Wait a minute… you used a nickname!”

“I suppose I did?”

“Now I can officially use your nickname!”

“I… suppose? I don’t understand what you’re so excited about…”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about using a nickname, but I didn’t know if it would be appropriate, but since you’ve used one for me, I know I can use one for you!”

“You… put a lot of thought into this.”

“I think a lot of things through. I’m very intellectual like that.”

Talia giggles to herself. “Ah, yes. Perhaps you could actually show me that sometime.”

“I’d be more than happy to… hey!”


	5. Everywhere and Nowhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After accidentally tearing a rip into an unknown plane, the Sebastian and Talia find themselves facing two horrific and abstract creatures, and Sebastian is forced to choose if he should reveal the nature of his arrival and the beings stalking his every move.

“And there is no way to track them?”

Sebastian angrily writes in a small leather-bound book, the same book he found in his own world. Just like before, his writing fades into the pages, this time morphing into a different sentence: “Once again, we can’t. If we knew their vibrational signature then maybe, but that would be impossible to get. You need to keep moving.”

“And I’ve already told you, I can’t leave now. You don’t get it, there are things I need to stay here for, things worth protecting.”

“You know you’re putting all of them at risk. You can’t beat them, so they won’t even stand a chance.”

“I know, Totem.”

“You aren’t making any sense by staying here, it is the worst possible decision. You could barely hold the Berith off, and it is the weaker one of the two.”

“I _know_ , Totem.”

“Sigh.”

“Did you just say ‘sigh’?”

“I can’t say anything, Sebastian. I am a book and seem to lack a mouth.”

Sebastian pinches the bridge of his nose. “Cut the crap, I’m not talking to you just for you to tell me I’m dumb. I cast magic a few days ago, how is that possible?”

The page is blank for a few moments before text appears again. “Well, in this reality, existence is threaded by an omnipresent field local mages call the Weave. Their so-called “magic” is just them manipulating the Weave, thus a form of reality manipulation. You have been exposed to hyperdimensional energies and are tapping into a being that exists many dimensions above you, thus you can access the fabric that makes up lower dimensions.”

Sebastian sighs. “You make it seem so simple.”

“Don’t give me sarcasm.”

“Totem, just tell me how I can do it, how can I manipulate the Weave?”

“Fine, as you know, you live in four dimensions. You move physically through three spatial dimensions and through one temporal dimension at one second per second. Now imagine you exist in every dimension.”

“There are more than the four?”

“Many, the first dimension is width, the next being length, and the third being depth. If you go from the 0th dimension to the third you would see a point, a line, two lines branching out into a plane, and a plane branching into a form. You experience time, the fourth dimension, moment to moment, a point. Therefore, the 5th dimension is time as a line, if you could move through the fifth dimension you could change your own position in the timeline of whatever reality you are rooted in.”

Sebastian frowns, this is something even he struggles to comprehend. Totem continues: “Now remember, a timeline is a path of options, every choice you could make in time. You eat an apple instead of an orange, then wear a green shirt instead of a blue one; one timeline. In another, you make different decisions. The 6th dimension is a branch in paths, a branch in timelines. Instead of going through one timeline, one set of decisions, you can move through different timelines, different sets of decisions.”

Sebastian groans. “I… don’t get it.”

“Sigh. Okay, it doesn’t really matter. My point is that you can interact with existence on a fundamental level. You can manipulate the Weave and therefore manipulate reality, what people here call magic. To move through the different dimensions, you must attune yourself to the frequencies associated with each, but don’t worry about that. If you can attune yourself with the vibrations of this Weave, you can manipulate it.”

Sebastian smiles. “And then I can cast magic! I get it now, when I cast magic I felt everything around me like it was a part of my body, I just need to do it on command and maintain it!”

“Correct. My knowledge indicates that in this world some individuals can manipulate the Weave naturally based on biology, being the child or descendant of a magical creature being an example. These beings are called Sorcerers, and to keep your ‘special nature’ a secret, I implore you to call yourself one from now on.”

“Alright then. Thanks, Totem.”

Sebastian closes the book, stretches, and walks outside. It’s been a few weeks since his meeting with Ularis, and since then he has had a good grasp on how things work about the town. Lucan is in his own Taven, the Eye of the Beholder, during most of the evening; Misiri spends most of her time either with Lucan or in her own blacksmith, and Ularis goes for a stroll of the town every other night. Talia has her own strict routine of waking up, making breakfast, cleaning clothes, weaving new clothes, prepping and preparing dinner, and then working again until she has to sleep.

Sebastian sighed, knowing his routines weren’t as beneficial or even productive most of the time, staying inside, occasionally practicing basic magic and communicating with Totem, and doing the odd chore Talia may ask of him. “Nope, time to be proactive today!”

He hasn’t seen Talia all day, so he figures he might as well see if he could be of some help. He glances out the window to look at the sun, which has started to lazily start to drift down towards the horizon. “Early afternoon, Talia must be in her work room.”

He walks to the near corner of the kitchen and starts to twist the small door handle to enter the work room, when he pauses. A faint, musical hum is coming from the small study, a simple melody that Sebastian could swear sounded extremely familiar, as if the tune was close to his heart. He enters the small room quietly, sitting down on a chair near the doorway. Talia is leaning over a small table, slowly patching together some grey fabric to attach to several sheets of dark leather. She is humming to herself, a slow, melodic, and minor melody. Sebastian had heard this before, but he couldn’t pinpoint the origin. He slowly closes his eyes, letting the somber and melancholy flow of the tune surround him, drifting off into a string of unintelligible memories. 

After what felt like only a few moments however, he blinks awake to a sudden silence, the melody suddenly gone and he looks up to see Talia standing over him with a confused but amused expression on her face. “Finally awake, sleepyhead?”

“Oh, uh… yeah.” He chuckles in embarrassment. “Sorry about that.’

“Did you just come here to just fall asleep? I didn’t notice you coming in.”

“Oh, no. I haven’t done anything all day, so I figured I would be more useful to you. But uh…”

Talia put the pieces together. “But you fell asleep?”

“Well… yeah, I did. But hey, don’t blame me! I was listening to your singing.”

Talia flushes red, turning to fold up the now-completed dark brown jacket and to hide her embarrassment. “I-I didn’t know you heard that… And it’s not singing, it’s humming. Very different.”

“Either way it sounded nice. And very familiar.”

“Please, it’s not that good… Wait, familiar?”

“Yeah… I don’t know, it sounds familiar, but not familiar like I heard it before, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it before. It’s difficult to explain, but it’s like if you had a sibling that you never met, and as soon as you lay eyes on him the first time you just know you are related. Where did you learn it?”

Talia can’t help but laugh a little at the way Sebastian described the song. “You’re so dramatic! I really couldn’t tell you where I picked it up though, the melody just popped into my head.”

“How did it go again...”

Sebastian slowly tries humming bits and pieces of the melody, but he is obviously less musically talented then Talia. Noticing how hesitant he was to try to experiment with the melody, she determined he is either not familiar with singing, embarrassed by it, or both. Based on his confused and frustrated expression, she guessed option three. “As much as I enjoy watching you struggle, let me handle this.”

She sits and closes her eyes and takes a breath. She has never really liked singing around others, but she feels like she could make an exception now. She focuses on the melody she felt like she knew so well, letting the quiet and somber tune escape her lips. Her expression calms as she entwines the soft song into her mind, holding onto the almost gloomy feeling of the melody. Sebastian closes his eyes as well, instinctively reaching out and speaking in a language he didn’t know he knew, sounding like a random assortment of letters, sounds, and noise.

Talia whips her eyes open, quickly noticing that she was not in her study anymore. From what she can tell, she wasn’t anywhere anymore, as there seems to be nothing around her, at least nothing she can see There was simply inky blackness everywhere in every direction. She swallows nervously. “Hello? Sebastian? Are you there? What happened?”

She freezes as she hears a small sound behind her, breathing. It is fast and rapid, sounding of distress. She looks in the direction of the sound and sees Sebastian, terrified. His eyes dart around in every direction and his lips move to speak words that don’t seem to leave his mouth.

Talia slowly moves towards him, cautious. “Sebastian, what’s going on? Where are we?”

He doesn’t respond, simply shaking curled in a small ball, mumbling the same nonsensical language he spoke before, although it is still silent. As she creeps closer, Talia notices streams of tears down the teen’s face. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s alright, I’m here, I can help you.”

Kneeling down, Talia reaches out and touches Sebastian’s hand softly, however she reels back as she feels a jolt come from the connection, as if she was just electrocuted. Sebastian snaps out of his trance, looking directly at Talia. He speaks, his voice strained and full of terror. “No, no no no no, you shouldn’t be here. You need to leave, now!”

Two ethereal hands reach through the boy, wrapping around him to drag him away. Talia quickly stands, reaching out towards Sebstian again, however she finds she can’t move towards him, as if her body is refusing to. He looks quickly at her. “Talia, run.”

Talia stands, stunned. “No… this isn’t real. This isn’t real!”

“I said run!”

In an instant, Sebastian is flung back out of sight by the two ghostly arms. Talia takes a few steps back, trying to comprehend what she just saw. “No… no this cannot be…”

Child-like laughing comes from behind her, quiet at first but quickly grew in volume until it was unbearable, thundering into Talia’s very core. She falls to her knees, clutching her skull as the laughter echoes in her head. Suddenly, the laughter stops and a quiet voice comes from behind the scared girl. It is raspy and strained, as if every word that was spoken would be its last. “Turn.”

Shaking, Talia turns to see what looks to be a young girl with blonde hair pulled back into a small ponytail. She is quite short, only a little over five feet tall. She flashes the terrified girl a smile, to which Talia simply gives a confused and frightened look. “Hello! I haven’t seen you here before!”

Talia swallows. “N-No… I don’t know where I am…”

“You’re nowhere!” The young girl giggles and Talia could swear her laugh sounded like it was gurgling. “We are all nowhere.”

“I… don’t understand…”

Talia frowns, suddenly taking in the features of the girl. She wore a simple, colorful dress, and her eyes were a dull purple, the color of a dark wine. Something catches Talia’s eyes, however, and she suddenly clutches her mouth to avoid vomiting. The girl's arm is dripping, her flesh coagulating into a droplet and falling to the ground. As soon as it leaves the girl’s body, the liquid becomes an oily black fluid. The girl giggles again, her body sloshing as she slowly walks towards Talia. “Don’t worry! No one really understands! Besides, you won’t be thinking for very much longer.”

Talia’s eyes go wide and she falls to the ground in fear, slowly crawling backwards, away from the monstrosity in front of her. The being’s eyes are closed, seemingly unable to be opened as her eyelids started to melt over her eyes, creating deep hollow crevasses where the deep purple glow of her eyes had been. The liquid nature of its body caused the wide smile the girl held to stretch until it was running nearly ear-to-ear. In its mouth is a sucking black void, somehow even more empty than the nothingness around her. Talia stumbles back in fear as the creature limps towards her, its voice a cacophony of noise and integers, however she could hear one word amongst the chaotic cry: consume.

The creature lunges at Talia before being engulfed in a pillar of light, screaming an ear-piercing sound like a blend of manic laughing and sheets of steel grinding against one another. Talia whips her head back to avoid the bright light. After a few moments, Talia slowly lifts her hands from her face, coming face-to-face with a large cat’s eye. Or what looked to be one, as it was a perfectly spherical ball of light. The sphere amazed Talia, she felt its purity and was drawn to it. Never before had Talia had seen such beauty and perfection. As soon as she was about to touch the ball, she fell to the ground, as if a force grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her down. A voice echoed in her head: “No…”

Slowly standing back up, she notices something different. What she thought was the pupil was actually a human figure, one of a young girl not much older than herself. Six massive wings extend from the eye, each fading away before coming in contact with the eye itself, but attached nonetheless. The eye begins to speak, its words filled with concentrated order and command and while Talia does not understand, she nods loyally. The figure within the eyes opened their own eyes, a brilliant violet.

“Prepare for the six and prepare for me.”

And in a flash of light, Talia is jerked back to the room with Sebastian. His face is pale, eyes darting around with streams of tears still trailing down his cheeks before he slowly realizes he is back. They both lock eyes, each trying to make sure that the other is alright and if what just happened, did happen. Sebastian slowly speaks. “My god… are you alright?”

Everything that happened set in at once within Talia, and she slowly starts to shake, tears rolling down her face. Sebastian quickly sits next to her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. “It’s alright, they’re gone now, it’s all over. I’m sorry. We’re okay now, we’re okay.”

Talia holds her tears in, pulling herself away from Sebastian’s embrace hesitantly. He sighs, wiping the last of the tears away and off Talia’s face. Talia’s voice wavers, threatening to break. “What… who were they?”

Sebastian doesn’t answer right away, seemingly trying to find the right words. He stands off the bench he was sitting on, slowly pacing the room. “This… is why I was so insistent on leaving… I’m being hunted.”

“Hunted… by who? What are they? Those… things… they weren’t human. They were monsters!”

Sebastian is silent, staring blankly at the floor facing away from Talia.

“Sebastian, I saw them too, talk to me!”

He clenches his jaw, almost like he is forcing himself into silence.

“I won’t ignore what just happened!” Talia stands angrily. “That was magic, you performed magic again and you took us somewhere. I saw those things, they spoke to me, just tell me what’s going on Sebastian!”

After a few moments of silence, Talia lets out a shaky breath, calming down a little. She reaches out to let her hand graze his. “You hold a lot of things in, Seb. Let me in, let me help you. I can help you.”

Sebastian abruptly stands, quickly jerking his hand away. “No. No you can’t.”

He turnS and silently leaves the house, leaving Talia in shock behind.

The lake is quiet, the water calm, and the wind light. Sebastian had been staring into the clear waters for some time now and he angrily throws a stone into the depths, disrupting the calmness of the cool water. _What the fuck am I doing?_ He thinks to himself, lying down in the dirt. _She saw them. I won’t be able to hide it from her if I stay. I need to leave. And now that they have seen her, they will be com―_

A sharp snap comes from behind him and he whirls around to see a young girl, no older than 17. Her skin is a dark tan, but it almost seemed golden in the light of the now-setting sun. Her eyes caught his attention as well, as they seem to be an amber color, unnaturally iridescent. She definitely wasn’t human and seemed to be eyeing him suspiciously. “You, human. Who are you and why are you here?”

He sighs, not really wanting to do this right now. “What does it matter to you?”

“It matters because we don’t get random strangers on our property often and I want to make sure you pose no threat to me or my comrades.”

“Kid, I’m not going to hurt anyone, so you can run along―”

“Kid?!” In her hand materializes a massive greatsword the size of her body. She lays it effortlessly on her shoulders. “Don’t patronize me, I could cut you in half and gut you like a salmon if I felt like it.”

“Oh, really _kid_?” Sebastian’s anger surges. “Why don’t you come here and find out.”

She raises the massive blade, aiming it at his head. “Gladly.”

Sebastian’s eyes glow a faint lavender. “Then let’s go.”

A voice cuts through the two. “Rheiji! Sebby! Stop!”

Jav runa in between the two, nearly falling over his small feet as he does so. “Don’t fight please!”

Rheiji looks up at Sebastian with a confused and suspicious look as she drives her sword into the ground. “Jav, who is this?”

“Sebastian! He’s living with Navi and Talia, he’s a friend!”

Rheiji eyes Sebastian for a moment before sighing in exasperation. “Fine. Alright then, _Sebby_ , who are you and why do you know my brother?”

“It’s Sebastian. Sebastian Maes. As Jav mentioned, I live with Talia and I met Jav when he came to play with Navi a few weeks ago. Who are you then?” He looks between the ash-grey skin of the young Drow then back up to the pale skin and topaz eyes of Rheji. “Adopted?”

“Really? I’m an Aasimar and he’s a Drow. Yes, we are adopted, at the Truedream Orphanage run by our father, Arrok.” She rolls her eyes dramatically in annoyance. “And yes, I think I heard Jav mention you. I found it strange, he doesn’t talk about anyone other than Navi normally.”

“Rheiji!”

Jav’s face flushes a dull maroon, as red as his dark face could be. Rheiji smirks and turns her attention back to Sebastian. “Additionally, Jav mentioned you have his ‘gift’ as well. At first, I thought it was because of your eye color, but no. You can cast magic without studying, can’t you? A sorcerer.”

He nods, extending his hand to show a blue flame glowing dimly. “Yes… I am not that adept yet, this is the most I can do, but I am improving.”

She nods. “Hmm. Then I suppose I have nothing to be concerned about, you aren’t a threat to anyone.” She walks over to where Sebastian was sitting. “May I?”

He initially wants to say no, not just because she said he wasn’t a threat, but also because he still isn’t in the best of moods. But something tells him that she was going to decide whether he wanted her to join him or not. He gestures to the side, signalling for her to sit. The Aasimar kneels next to him, before crossing her legs. Jav slowly walks up to her, sitting in her lap and closing his eyes. She smiles kindly, wrapping her arms around him protectively. Sebastian smirks at the gesture. “You’re the protector of your siblings, aren’t you?”

She nods. “Yes. Someone has to, and it might as well be me.”

“A good older sister then.”

“Flattery won’t get you anywhere with me. Besides, we aren’t really siblings, it’s.. complicated.”

“Complicated?”

“Jav must not have informed you, Arrok Truedream lives in the large house over here. He took in many non-human children shunned from human society. He is like a father to some, and simply a guardian to others. While some of us would say they are his children, others like myself may not. Arrok is not my father, but he is my guardian, not that I need one. And the others, some of them are like siblings, and others are… well we are all close whether we consider ourselves family or not.”

“Complicated indeed.”

“It’s really not. Four of them consister Arrok to be their father, and that is Rafs, Jav, Slips, and Calypso. However, other children have come to the Truedream household for safety or because they like the environment he provides, that includes Cli, Kix, and me. Being around Navi, who spends a lot of time with her, you really should know these things.”

“Hmph. Are you just here to insult me?”

“Perhaps. More importantly, who exactly are you? We don’t get visitors often, in Aberdeen. And even fewer human visitors. I don’t think I’ve seen another human other than the Silverkins.”

“Well… my home village was destroyed, and I’ve been travelling ever since. Somehow, I ended up here, Talia found me unconscious in a field on her way back from Stillmount and she offered a place in her home for the foreseeable future.”

The young girl scoffs. “Yeah, I’m sure Talia would be so blindingly kind and naïve to take in a complete stranger like you.”

“Hey!”

“Come now, don’t be stupid. She offered to let you live with her, to stay _permanently_ in her home, after what a few days? Do you really think she’d just let you in?”

“I don’t know! And it isn’t permanently either. She’s done it before, or at least her family has.”

Rheiji sighs in annoyance “Gods you are dense… fine, be that way.”

“Are you aware you started talking to me about 2 minutes ago? We barely know each other and you have already questioned my living situation and commented on my personality.”

“Yeah. Look, I suppose I wasn’t completely honest with you. I know who you are Maes, Navi told me a bunch. Partly I just wanted to see if her excitement was justified.”

“And?”

“We’ll see. More importantly…”

With a flick of her wrist, her massive greatsword has been summoned, hovering inches in front of his neck. “My parents were human, however many generations ago my bloodline was touched by a celestial, an angel so to speak. A powerful one. I am extraplanar by nature and I feel something about you that isn’t normal.”

Sebastian swallows, feeling the cool metal against his trachea. He has to choose his words extremely carefully. “Obviously… I am not a completely normal human either. Inherent magical abilities, glowing strange eyes, random appearance in a field of grass… I don’t really understand how all this magic stuff works so any answer I could have wouldn’t be satisfactory.”

A few tense seconds pass before Jav yawns, adjusting himself in Rheiji’s lap. The sword fades in a pale dim light. “Fine. Again, you pose no threat to me, but I do know that there is something about you I don’t understand. Mix that with you having potentially powerful magical abilities and let’s just say I’ve been wary of your existence. There are people in this town I care about, and I don’t want to see them hurt, either by your weirdness or… by your deception.”

Sebastian frowns, not saying a word. Rheiji gives him a very serious look. “I can tell you aren’t lying to me, but I can’t say you’re telling me everything. And judging by your interactions with Talia earlier…”

“Wha… How the hell do you know about that?!”

“I’ve been meaning to have a chat with you for a while Maes. I didn’t hear anything specific, but the window was open and Talia was quite loud about how unhappy she was with you.”

Sebastian angrily turns his head to stare into the water once more. Rheiji slowly picks up the sleeping Drow. “I stayed for a bit after you left. You know, I haven’t heard Talia cry since her parents died. She isn’t one to be brought to tears easily.”

Her words were filled with venom, lashing at Sebastian. She sighs, starting to walk away. “I get it, everything is strange and you have to be the big strong hero to carry the burden right? Welcome to my life. I don’t know how to feel about you yet Maes, but I suggest that unless you want to prove Navi’s words wrong about how ‘cool’ she thinks you are, you talk to Talia right now. Or I guarantee your presence in Aberdeen is going to be a lot _shorter_.”

With that, she turns to walk towards the large Truedream household, carrying a sleeping Jav with her leaving Sebastian to quietly stare into the waters. 

By the time Sebastian works up the nerve to return to the house, the sun has set and it is quite dark. He steps through the doorway quietly. “Okay… I should be able to sneak past Talia and Navi’s room without waking them, then I can make it to my own… bed…”

He stops, turning towards an open doorway where Navi stood rubbing her eyes. “You’re back…” Her voice sounds tired and sad. “Umm… Talia is in the kitchen... “

“She’s… not in bed? She’s normally sleeping by now.”

“She’s been awake…”

He swallows, slowly walking past her room to his own. Navi chimes in. “She’s been upset… Can you talk to her? I couldn’t help her…”

He can’t say no to her. “I… Yeah, Navi, I’ll talk to her. You get some sleep.”

She smiles tiredly before stumbling back into bed, yawning. “Thank you Sebby…”

Sebastian slowly walks into the kitchen, noticing a light in the far living area where the dining table was. He swallows nervously, walking carefully across the tile before entering the dimly lit room. Talia sits away from him reading a small book with a candle opposite from her. She doesn’t seem to notice him, sighing and turning the next page. “You really shouldn’t be up this late.”

Talia jolts into reality, slamming the book closed and straightening. After a few moments of tense silence, she sighs. “Sebastian, must you go around scaring the ever-living daylights out of… Sebastian!”

She quickly stands and ran over to the now confused boy, hugging him tightly. “I had half a mind to send a rescue team out there!”

“A rescue team? Talia please, I can take care of myself, I would have been fi―”

“You’ve been talking about how you need to leave for weeks! I thought you were going to run off for real this time!”

“Wha… Talia I wouldn’t just abandon you like th―”

“And those things we saw! I don’t know if they’re out there or what but they could have found you and I didn’t know if they were going to hurt you!”

“Talia please, you’re being hyster―”

“And what would I tell Navi! I still don’t know what to say about the whole thing! It was real and not just a dream, so do I need to tell anyone of the dangers of everything or should I―”

“Talia!”

Sebastian places a hand on the side of her face, lightly moving her face to make eye contact with him. “Calm down, everything is alright.”

She sighs. “Yes I know… I was just very worried, Sebastian. You just left, you must understand how personal of a topic that is to me.”

“Yeah… I’ve just been at Lake’s Edge since I left.”

“Sebastian! It is dangerous over there! The ground is unstable and the water is cold, you could have gotten hypothermia or something worse!”

“You’re worrying again.”

“I know! I know... I’ve just been… emotional.”

She slowly places her hand against his. “Just… don’t scare me like that again, alright?”

He blinks a few times to fully process what was going on before smiling lightly. “Fine, if only to avoid you exploding from anxiety.”

“Please, you are such an exaggerator.”

“That’s me.”

They stand like that for a moment before Sebastian fully recognizes what is going on and pulls his hand back to his side. “Well, I shouldn’t keep you up more than I already have, so…” He trails off as he notices Talia continuing to make eye contact with him. “Is… there something wrong?”

She is silent for a few moments before gesturing for Sebastian to lean in. He swallows, gently leaning in until his face was a few inches in front of hers. They sit in silence for a few moments; Sebastian’s eyes dart around the room, not quite sure what to do, and Talia simply stares into his eyes, a very calm expression on her face. She slowly reaches for Sebastian, quickly grabbing him by the ear, causing Sebastian to quickly yelp in pain. “I’m still quite angry at you.”

“Oh come on! Ow! Don’t be so rough!”

“Please, I’ve been here for hours worrying.”

“Yeah bu-, ack! Stop it!”

“No. This is what you get.”

Talia iis struggling to contain her laughter, watching Sebastian squirm as she tugs on his ear. Eventually he sits down on a nearby chair, just letting it happen. Talia pouts lightly. “Oh, now this isn’t as fun.”

“Yeah well welcome to my world.”

“Come now, can’t I have my fun?”

“ _This_ is what you call fun? You are more boring than I thought.”

“...you are going to regret that.”

“Regret… what?”

Sebastian gives Talia a confused look, as she takes a few steps away towards the counter grinning mischievously. Sebastian looks to her side, noticing an object on the corner of the desk. “Oh no. Talia, no. Absolutely not. Anything but that.”

“Then take it back.”

“...no.”

“Well then. I have no choice.”

Sebastian takes a few steps back as Talia slowly dips her hand into a small cup filled with cold water. “Talia. Let’s talk about this.”

She slowly approached, grinning. “No more talking, I’m going to enjoy this.”

She quickly jumped at him, flicking small amounts of the ice cold water on him.

“Ack! Stop!”

He quickly rolls under the table, knocking his head on the bottom of it, then awkwardly standing up on the other side. “This. This is your revenge? Cool water flicked at my face.”

“Yes, and it seems to be working wonders.”

She tosses more of the ice cold water onto the helpless boy. “Fuck, it’s so gross! Stop!”

“Nope!”

He quickly raises a hand, a chair rising off the ground to block the incoming water. Talia pauses, as this was something she did not expect. Sebastian takes this opportunity to slide over the table and tackle her to the ground, pinning her arms and knocking the small cup to the side. “Fucking… finally…”

Small beads of water drip from his annoyed face. Talia giggles uncontrollably at his discomfort. “This... this was almost worth thinking you were going to leave.”

He blinks, remembering the severity of the situation. “Talia… do you really think I would simply leave you?”

Her laughter subsides and her expression darkens. “Well, my parents left me… I never really know who will be next.”

Sebastian didn’t know what was coming over him. He _knew_ if he stayed everyone would be in danger. This may be the death of everyone here. Why can’t he leave? What was about this girl that made him want to stay here for as long as he can? What was this overwhelming sense of protection? He’s been dealing with magic for months now, but this isn’t it. What the hell is… oh. He slowly gets off her, letting her sit up. “Talia… those things we saw… they are conduits of powerful gods that I have angered. They want me dead… perhaps something even worse than dead. You… must understand why I was so apprehensive to the idea of staying.”

She turns, eyes full of panic. “Sebastian please, if those things are mortal, we can fight them! We can prepare and we can win!”

“I… want to believe you, truly I do. I know what they are capable of… I don’t think we can. I can only delay them by continuing to run. Or perhaps… I should just turn myself in and let them end me…”

Talia tears up. “S-Sebastian…”

“I’m sorry, Talia, but they are too strong. They are relentless. They hate me for something that happened and now… they want nothing more than for my life to end. And perhaps… for the sake of these people and… for the sake of you, I should let them get what they want. I know you won’t like this, but―”

Talis grips him by his shirt, pulling him close and burying her face in his torso. He feels her warm tears seep into his shirt. “Shut up Sebastian! I will not have you speak such self destructive nonsense in my home!”

Sebastian is speechless for a moment, choosing only to place his arms around the crying girl, holding her steady as she weeps into him, providing as much comfort as he can. “You are an idiot… if you think I will let another person die for my safety… to let you sacrifice yourself leaving the people that care about you alone...”

Her voice is shaky and she tries to keep it steady. “I will not let you throw yourself away because you feel as if you owe it to me.”

“Talia… it’s only a matter of time before something terrible happens and it will be my fault. I’m only trying to do what’s right.”

She pushes away from him, her stormy grey eyes filled with distress and anxiety. “You idiot! Don’t you see I need you?!”

Several moments pass as the two look at one another before they both seem to recognize what was said. Talia looks away. “We… we need you. Navi, Misiri, everyone just… we need you here. I know you think people here don’t like you, but they do. We are a community here and I’ve heard people who want to talk with you and know you, but they're scared. Please, just stay here with us… with me...”

He can’t do this anymore, as much as he knew he shouldn’t, he can’t help himself. He moves close to Talia, placing one hand on the side of her head to brush away one of the tears. She looks up to him in confusion, but also in curiosity. He swallows, speaking slowly. “Look, Tal, I’ve never been good with words, but just listen to me. I can’t… ignore the fact that I love it here in this town. I’ve pushed the feeling down to tell myself I couldn’t be distracted, I need to leave to keep people safe. But… I love it here.”

He brings her head forth gently, placing her forehead against his. “I will stay for everyone. I will stay for Navi. And I will stay for you.”

She blinks, a small blush growing across the bridge of her nose and to her cheeks. “F-For me? Please, you are here for the town and for your friends, and… and…”

She slowly looks up to match Sebastian’s gaze. “I… must be honest too, I’ve been selfish. Your friends here would miss you, yes, but I’ve been begging you to stay for my own personal reasons…”

He smiles gently. “Don’t be, Tal. You… your kindness, generosity, and even your aggressive water-throwing. I won’t lie, it is mainly why I choose to stay.”

“Sebastian… I can’t… I couldn’t lose another person I love.”

“I couldn’t bear to lose you either… I promise, I will stay here with you.”

He brings his face close, swallowing nervously. “For… as long as you want me here, of course.”

She smiles, closing her eyes, bringing her face to meet his. “Don’t worry, that won’t be for a long time.”

A young voice cuts through the two. “Awwwwww!”

Talia shoots up, nearly jumping back a few feet as Sebastian falls backwards, rolling over himself to stand straight up. Navi pouted, crossing her arms. “What? C’mon, you were both getting to the best part…”

“Navi!” Talia exclaims, extremely angry. “What are you doing, it’s the middle of the night!”

“You two weren’t exactly quiet…” She smirks. “Not that I minded.”

“Navi!”

Sebastian slowly sinks back into a chair, sighing and taking a sip of water. Did all that really happen? He isn’t reading too far into this… was he? He watches the two go back and forth, Navi teasing her sister on what she saw, Talia, red with both anger and embarrassment, responding in an upset tone. He smiles. While this outcome wasn’t expected, he is okay with it. He is okay with all of this. For the first time since the death of his reality and his home, he feels alright and he feels at home.

Outside the window was a golden eagle. It flies off of its perch in a nearby tree several yards away. Its form glows, transforming into that of a young girl, radiating power. Long blonde hair flows down her back and over her shoulders in a non existent breeze. She blinks a few times, taking a moment to examine her form. “Yes… this will do.”

She looks at the far house, noticing Sebastian and the two others inside. “This is where you’ve been hiding. But why here… oh, I see. You naïve fool. You haven’t changed a bit. It disgusts me.”

Her eyes glow as she slowly fades into nothingness, her faint laughter fading into the ambient noises of the forest. “See you soon, Brother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this ends the first prologue of Reality Undefined! I am the most familiar with Sebastian when compared to all my other characters, so this served as practice as I am a very new writer... but I really hope you enjoyed this! I have many more stories to bring you all, but don't you worry, Sebastian's and Talia's stories aren't over. This is only the beginning! I'll see you all in Reality Undefined: The Forgotten Magicks


End file.
